How Physician-Assisted Suicides Change how we Think About Death

Introduction

Physician-assisted suicide is a controversial topic of discussion with various religions condemning the act and regarding it as a moral disapproval of suicide. There are countries that do not approve of physician-assisted suicide and have criminalized the act. However, the perception is drastically changing with the emergence of the psychiatry discipline where physicians can diagnose and treat psychiatric disorders that contribute to suicide.

Physician-assisted suicide refers to the process where a physician facilitates a patient’s death by making available the information or resources to enable the life-ending act. For instance, a physician may provide a competent patient with a prescription medicine and provide information such as a lethal dose for the patient to use with the intention of ending his life. This is a contentious ethical issue significantly affecting healthcare today since it is death facilitated by the physician. Although the act has been legalized in some states, many other states have criminalized the act.

The aim of physician-assisted suicide is to relieve suffering, especially at the end of life. However, the contentious issues raised by some organizations include cases such as where patients can hasten their deaths following misdiagnosis of terminal diseases. Misdiagnosis can frighten the patient and cause the patient to hasten their death. Moreover, people suffering from mental disorders such as depression are prone to harm in cases where physician-assisted suicide is allowed.

Demoralization can also lead patients to hasten their deaths, yet physicians are ready to help them. To top it all, some healthcare professionals lack adequate training and experience and therefore cannot know how to intervene in such cases. Other factors such as financial constraints and emotional instability and the potential to abuse the law have led some states to reject Physician-assisted suicide laws.

There are assertations that suicide and physician-assisted dying are different. That physician-assisted suicide is dying in dignity, but can it change how people think about death? No, and yes. No, because death whether natural or suicide, is still death. There are feelings that are aroused at the thought of death. Death is an inevitable consequence of life but elicits emotions such as fear, anxiety, and frustration. The majority of people adapt poorly to death, however, with physician-assisted suicide, patients especially those with life-threatening diseases are utilizing it. Life is valuable and there is no need to prolong it in cases of intolerable pain or suffering according to how some patients may reason. There is a chance that intervening to relieve pain can treat suffering even though it means shortening life. Thus, if it can lead to comfort, then, yes, physician-assisted suicide can change how we think about death and we can see death as something that ends our pains.