Overview of the Assisted Suicide Debate
One of the oldest issues debated
from the standpoint of medical ethics is that of one human, usually a doctor,
assisting another human to end his or her life. It was first sworn against by
doctors in the "Hippocratic Oath," produced
by the Greek physician Hippocrates in the fifth century BC. This required new physicians to
swear to uphold the various legal standards set forth. Regarding what we now call assisted suicide and euthanasia, the Oath states, "I will not
give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan."
It is important to first understand the difference between assisted suicide, euthanasia, and right to die, which are commonly interchanged. Assisted suicide refers to a person bringing about his or her own death with the help of another person. Because the other person is often a physician, the act is often called "doctor-assisted suicide." If the physician leaves the patient with a loaded syringe, and the patient injects himself or herself with it, the act is an assisted suicide. Euthanasia, strictly speaking, means that the physician or other person is the one who performs the last act that causes death. For example, if a physician injects a patient with a lethal overdose of a pain-killing medication, he or she is performing euthanasia. The right to die generally refers to allowing a patient to die by natural causes when life-sustaining treatment is taken away. The cause of death is considered, therefore, the illness.
The global debates surrounding these issues have never been stronger. A century ago, the medical advances used today to prolong life were unavailable. No longer do those with access to health care die early from infectious diseases, but also life expectancies run well into the seventies. Medical technology can keep terminally ill (dying) patients alive much longer than ever before. Patients who previously would have died quickly from an inability to eat and drink or other complications now can be sustained for days, weeks, and even years. Intravenous (IV) feeding and hydration (watering), artificial blood-circulating and respiratory systems, antibiotics, and chemotherapy (treatment for cancer) allow life to be prolonged. Questions have started to arise in public discourse. When should an artificial respirator or feeding tube be removed from a person in a coma? When should chemotherapy be discontinued for a cancer patient? Not only when, but who has the right to make the call? Patients' rights groups, physician organizations, as well as religious groups battle for control over decisions about how and when an individual dies. Laws and court decisions began to establish rules and standards to apply to the dying.
Supporters of assisted suicide say it is not really different from withholding life-supporting medical care, and that it is a merciful and dignified option for individuals whose quality of life has become intolerable due to illness. It is a more visible and more easily regulated decision. On the other side is the American Medical Association, whose "Code of Medical Ethics" considers assisted suicide very different from removal of life-sustaining medical care. Although accepting that removal of life support is sometimes necessary to honour a patient's wishes, it holds that assisted suicide is against professional ethics. Others in opposition see a slippery slope, where legalizing assisted suicide could lead to abuses of the chronically ill, the handicapped, and the elderly. The Catholic Church, arguing that human life should not be destroyed for any reason, is one of many religious organizations opposed to assisted suicide.
Overviews by Decade can be found below
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
It is important to first understand the difference between assisted suicide, euthanasia, and right to die, which are commonly interchanged. Assisted suicide refers to a person bringing about his or her own death with the help of another person. Because the other person is often a physician, the act is often called "doctor-assisted suicide." If the physician leaves the patient with a loaded syringe, and the patient injects himself or herself with it, the act is an assisted suicide. Euthanasia, strictly speaking, means that the physician or other person is the one who performs the last act that causes death. For example, if a physician injects a patient with a lethal overdose of a pain-killing medication, he or she is performing euthanasia. The right to die generally refers to allowing a patient to die by natural causes when life-sustaining treatment is taken away. The cause of death is considered, therefore, the illness.
The global debates surrounding these issues have never been stronger. A century ago, the medical advances used today to prolong life were unavailable. No longer do those with access to health care die early from infectious diseases, but also life expectancies run well into the seventies. Medical technology can keep terminally ill (dying) patients alive much longer than ever before. Patients who previously would have died quickly from an inability to eat and drink or other complications now can be sustained for days, weeks, and even years. Intravenous (IV) feeding and hydration (watering), artificial blood-circulating and respiratory systems, antibiotics, and chemotherapy (treatment for cancer) allow life to be prolonged. Questions have started to arise in public discourse. When should an artificial respirator or feeding tube be removed from a person in a coma? When should chemotherapy be discontinued for a cancer patient? Not only when, but who has the right to make the call? Patients' rights groups, physician organizations, as well as religious groups battle for control over decisions about how and when an individual dies. Laws and court decisions began to establish rules and standards to apply to the dying.
Supporters of assisted suicide say it is not really different from withholding life-supporting medical care, and that it is a merciful and dignified option for individuals whose quality of life has become intolerable due to illness. It is a more visible and more easily regulated decision. On the other side is the American Medical Association, whose "Code of Medical Ethics" considers assisted suicide very different from removal of life-sustaining medical care. Although accepting that removal of life support is sometimes necessary to honour a patient's wishes, it holds that assisted suicide is against professional ethics. Others in opposition see a slippery slope, where legalizing assisted suicide could lead to abuses of the chronically ill, the handicapped, and the elderly. The Catholic Church, arguing that human life should not be destroyed for any reason, is one of many religious organizations opposed to assisted suicide.
Overviews by Decade can be found below
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
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