Should physicians be allowed to assist in patient suicide?
The issue of assisted suicide has brought different views, with people having different stands regarding the issue. Permitting assisted suicide by physicians depends on their willingness and ability to improve the patient’s condition. If the patient is willing, the physician is okay with it, and there is not much that can be done to improve the patient’s condition, physicians should be allowed to assist patients in suicide. It is the doctor's role to respect the decisions of their patients (Boisvert, 2010) . The matter of assisted suicide should be considered sympathetic when the terminal patients should be given the right to end the suffering (Kumaravel, 2018) . Additionally, it would help minimize patients’ financial struggles on hospital bills to their friends and families, give the people the right to determine their own. When their burden of suffering exceeds the positive aspects of a patient being alive, the patients' wish to die should be honored (Goligher et al., 2017) . Physician-assisted suicide helps respect a patient's wishes.
On the other hand, patients should be denied their right to assisted suicide. Assisted suicide is wrong since it conflicts with a person’s duty to himself/herself, and the natural tendency of self-perpetuations (State, 2011) . Assisted suicide injures a person and the community where he/she originates. Also, assisted suicide violates God's rule over life, which is a gift from Him. My stand on assisted suicide is that individuals should live fully, and assisted suicide should be allowed on rare conditions when a patient's illness no longer allowed for natural life. Suicide should only be allowed in situations where terminal patients lose their ability to pursue a life that nature intended.
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Should the death penalty be abolished?
Opponents of the death penalty argue that it should be put to an end as it is permanent once it occurs. It is termed a cruel and unusual punishment of people and is forbidden by the US constitution (Row & Newberry, 2019) . The absolute judgments can result in people for the crimes that they did not commit. Also, there are no humane ways of killing. The methods used to kill, like the lethal injections, shooting, hacking, and beheading, only thrives on extending the violence cycle and cannot relieve the pain suffering by the victim's family. Human executions violate the human right to life. Some death penalties are taken in public and insult to human dignity and cannot be accepted (Amnesty, 2019) . Once a person’s life is taken, it cannot be taken back.
On the other hand, the death penalty should be allowed because it controls criminals from committing crimes. When criminals witness death sentences on others, they fear committing crimes to avoid such punishments. Also, it would be easy for the government to kill criminals, such as murders other than holding them in prisons, of which they would pose a threat to other prisoners and the public when they are released. In my opinion, death penalties should be ended as they are arbitrary. The costs incurred in trials and appeals make the death penalty more expensive than taking the prisoner in jail. Also, most of the individuals convicted of death are the poor and less privileged people in the society.
References
Amnesty. (2019, May 8). Five Reasons to Abolish the Death Penalty . Amnesty.Org: https://www.amnesty.org.au/5-reasons-abolish-death-penalty/#:~:text=it%20doesn't%20deter%20criminals,at%20its%20lowest%20since%201966.
Boisvert, M. (2010, April). Should Physicians Be Open to Euthanasia? Can Fam Physician, 56 (4), 320-322. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc2860814/
Goligher, E. C., Ely, E. W., Sulmasy, D. P., Bakker, J., Raphael, J., Volandes, A. E., . . . Downar, J. (2017). Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in the Intensive Care Unit: A Dialogue on Core Ethical Issues. Crit Care Med, 45 (2), 149-155. https://dx.doi.org/10.1097%2fccm.0000000000001818
Kumaravel, A. (2018). Physician Aid-In-Dying: Practical Considerations. American Journal of Psychiatry , 3-5. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp-rj.2018.130802
Row, D. R., & Newberry, J. R. (2019, December 20). Conceptual and Scientific Defects in The Supreme Court’s “Method Of Execution” Jurisprudence. Yale J Biol Med, 92 (4), 793–803. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc6913819/
State, N. Y. (2011, April). Department of Health . New York State. https://www.health.ny.gov/regulations/task_force/reports_publications/when_death_is_sought/chap5.htm
