Arguments Against Physician Assisted Suicide

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CJ Limpag Mr. Ruiz English 10 25 April 2024 Should Medical Practitioners be Allowed to Perform Medically Assisted Suicide? Suicide is defined as “the act of intentionally causing one’s death” as per the Merriem-Webster dictionary and is a highly controversial topic of debate, most especially within the field of medicine. Specifically, during the process of becoming a doctor, a physician would have to swear what is known as the “Hippocratic Oath”, an oath made by the Greek doctor Hippocrates that can be summarized as “First, do no harm”. The true interpretation of the Hippocratic Oath can vary from person to person considering the many changes to the status quo of medicine, but the role of the doctor has always been as the healer. Thus, when the idea of a patient being in such a horrible state of living that euthanizing them would be a mercy, it brings the difficult decision of whether or not to go with the euthanizing. …show more content…
On the other hand, euthanizing the patient would directly violate the oath by directly “harming” them, even if it ends the suffering of the patient. Ultimately, it should be up to the patient to decide how their lives end and whether or not they’d want to keep on living, and denying the patient that choice should be considered a direct violation of the oath that medical practitioners swear to. Hospitals should always prioritize the patients’ wishes of how they want to live, or in this case, their lives. The National Library of Medicine argues that “at its core, medicine [should] always [aim] to relieve the suffering of patients from illness and disease” (“Pros and Cons