Euthanasia

9 Pages 2131 Words

sing unnecessary pain and suffering, and loss of dignity. At the same time, the Society supports the use of medications and medical procedures, which will provide comfort care to the dying. It also recognizes that a terminal condition may prevent a patient’s participation in medical care decisions while a physician and/or hospital may not have honored their expressed wishes.
The Society sees to protect the rights of a dying patient, and to protect physicians, hospitals and health care providers from the threat of liability for complying with the mandated desires of those who wish to die with medical intervention limited to the provision of comfort care (Cundiff 45).
Robert T. Hall, a professor of sociology and philosophy at West Virginia State College and the author of several books and articles on morality and ethics, contends that withdrawing life-sustaining treatments from dying patients is a common, legal, and painful method of physician-assisted suicide (89). Hall asserts that many terminally ill patients who wish to end their suffering are not undergoing life-sustaining treatment and therefore require more assistance from their doctor such as a drug overdose. In such cases, physician-assisted suicide is an ethical and humane course, he argues, and the practice should be legalized. Hall states that the problem of physician-assisted suicide poses a double question and requires a double answer. Critics often charge that if physician-assisted suicide was legalized, patients who are mentally unstable or simply depressed would quickly choose suicide. But current laws stipulate clearly that no physician should ever offer or agree to any medical procedure unless it is in the best interest of the patient. With regard to physician-assisted suicide, the physician must be convinced that there is no other option and that the situation is so...