Physician Assisted Suicide Arguments Against Euthanasia

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Death is something that no one escapes. Progress within the healthcare industry raises questions with defining the meaning of death and how it compares with the life. With euthanasia and physician assisted suicide morality issues arise tangled with legal and policy debates. All terms used to describe killing and dying are often controversial. However according to some, while death is considered to be bad or evil, euthanasia is considered to be good. Nevertheless suicide and euthanasia is not consistent with any medical practice and contradicts physician's oath to provide care to patients.
Physician assisted suicide can be described as the decision in which a patient makes to end his or her own life with the support of the physician. While this …show more content…
The first argument derives from self determination. Many advocates of active euthanasia view that patients have the right to determine their own life, whether that be the right to live or die. This right is within the boundaries of a patient exercising autonomy. Therefore by the patient exercising this right euthanasia is morally allowed and or permissible. Callahan object this argument. He agrees that while it may be true; that because a person's capability to determine his or her own life, he or she can end his or her own life. However this does not transfer to a medical professional. Just because we have the right to end our own lives, does not imply that another individual ( in this case the physician) has the right to kill. According to Callahan such actions are considered murder. The second argument in support of active euthanasia is killing versus dying. Many people who support the subject of active euthanasia see no morally relative difference between killing and letting a patient die. For example if a patient was on life support a physician could unplug the patient resulting in their death. A physician could also lethally inject a patient, which would also be the cause of their
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