Assisted Suicide/Euthanasia

The race is over the pain is excruciating; no one is sure what to do, however, without question the doctor announces that there is no hope the animal is lame and will never run another race, it is time to be humane and put the horse down. This is where the debate comes into play, it is considered humane to euthanize an animal that is in pain; however, it is illegal to euthanize a human being that is in excruciating pain even when the prognosis is death. Health care professionals are to uphold the professional obligation to heal, not to cause harm. It is stated that better pain management is currently available to ease the pain and suffering of patients until they die, so physician assisted suicide is unnecessary.

Although a physician is obligated to follow the current rule of no physician assisted suicide there are several benefits to many patients if it were allowed. For example, a patients dignity would still be intact, their pain and suffering and the pain and suffering of their family would be minimal, the financial burden to the family and health insurance companies would be minimal and the patient should be able to make the decision and have the choice of their own body if they want to choose euthanasia when they are critically ill. There are many issues against euthanasia as well, life insurance payouts would potentially increase because people would tend to take out larger insurance policies to help take care of their families if they were able to choose euthanasia, the family could convince everyone their family member is insane and would want euthanasia instead of living with the pain and decline in dignity. The motivation to the negative would be money and financial gain by family members and possible healthcare professionals.

According to http://www.nightingalealliance.org/pdf/state_grid.pdf every state with the exception of Ohio prohibits assisted suicide/euthanasia under the general homicide laws. Ohio's stand is slightly different as they feel that euthanasia is against their public policy and a task force for pain management would be more beneficial. Over the past week the news has had stories about medications being switched prior to arrival at the pharmacy and several people have received the wrong medication. What if a patient with incurable cancer required pain medication to be able to stand the pain and they received something other than a pain medication, how long would it take before they figured out the patient was given the wrong medication? How long would someone have to suffer before they received the relief they needed? Would you be able to live with the pain? Personally, the choice would be euthanasia, living in pain without being able to assist to my own needs would be more than I could handle and more than I would want my family to have to deal with.

One man that could not justifiably let a patient suffer until they died was Dr. Kevorkian, he allegedly assisted with several physician assisted suicides and was not convicted of a crime until one of his assisted suicides was video taped. There are several people that do not feel that Dr. Kevorkian provided the best choice for patients; however, for those patients that made the choice to end their life, they were happy that Dr. Kevorkian was there for them and felt comfort knowing that if the time came they could call on him to help them end their suffering.

The line is very fine when drawn in the sand. How is it different for a patient to request a standing "Do Not Resuscitate" order, or to ask someone to assist them with their suicide? The difference is non-existent, as with the patient requesting that the feeding tube be taken out or the respirator be turned off, this is done within a medical facility and can be monitored. The patient should be able to speak with their physician and between the two of them discuss all options, many people would not choose suicide and some would. This practice should be looked into further, as it is already being done but in a much quieter manner. In many cases, too much pain medication is given to suppress the breathing and allow the patient to quietly go to sleep and never wake up. Very few families request autopsies in terminally ill patients mainly because they cannot stand anymore suffering or not wanting to stretch out the illness any longer. As with many professions there seems to be unwritten rules for certain situations, this is many professionals way of having the choice to do what they feel is right. The healthcare professional is ensuring they do no harm, but who is to say that allowing someone to live in pain with no dignity until they die is not harm.

As with the example of the lame horse, why is that considered humane?, and the proper procedure?, but the same consideration would be murder if it was a person.

References

PDF listing state legal status on Assisted Suicide/Euthanasia. Retrieved on

June 10, 2006 from http://www.nightingalealliance.org/pdf/state_grid.pdf.