Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide
Euthanasia refers to the act of a doctor getting involved directly to give a lethal injection to bring the patient’s life to an end. Physician-assisted suicide is whereby a physician is engaged indirectly to end a patient’s life by offering a fatal medication for death via a prescription. In this case, the patient acts solely in the administration of the terminal medication. Physician-assisted suicide allows the patient to determine their time of death. Besides, it is less emotional for the doctor who offered lethal medicine because they do not have to be present during the administration process. Even though it is evident that in both practices’ physicians are involved at one point, physician-assisted suicide is a single action of the patient because they administer the medication on their own at their chosen time.
Physician-assisted suicide is the best approach to end life because the patient plays a significant role in it. The patient is the one who places the request for lethal medication to a doctor (Nordqvist, 2017). Afterwards, the physician prescribes the best fatal drug based on the patient’s request then delivers the drug to the patient. It is then the choice of the patient on when to administer the lethal medication or stop. Unlike euthanasia, a patient’s family can opt for the practice when there is no sign of improvement (Naseh & Heidari, 2017, p. 22). The patient, in this case, is never involved in the action. The doctor bears the full emotional responsibility of the act. I believe that one should be included in the lethal injection administration because it is their life.
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In conclusion, physician-assisted suicide is better than euthanasia because the patient is fully involved. In physician-assisted suicide, the patient not only requests for the lethal medication but also decides when to administer it solely. Unlike in euthanasia suicide, patients are never aware of their surrounding or what is being done to them. In other words, patients are never engaged in the decision. Therefore, physician-assisted suicide is the optimal practice because a patient’s consent is involved.
References
Naseh, L., & Heidari, M. (2017). The attitudes of nursing students to euthanasia. Indian Journal of Medical Ethics , 2 (1), 20-24. https://doi.org/10.20529/ijme.2017.004
Nordqvist, C. (2017). Euthanasia and assisted suicide. Medical news today .
