Running Head: MULTIPLE SOURCES POSITION PAPER MULTIPLE SOURCES POSITION PAPER Name Instructor Course Date Surname 1 MULTIPLE SOURCES POSITION PAPER Surname 2 Often abbreviated as PAS, physician-assisted suicide is a medical procedure in which doctors or health practitioners offer medication to a sound minded patient with the purpose of ending his or her life. This type of medical practice has received both criticism and support from different writers, activists, and human rights bodies. Various authors have expressed their stands on the whole issues of physicians’ assisted suicide. For example; in his article ‘Defense of voluntary euthanasia’ Sidney Hook writes and narrates why he is backing the euthanasia issue. Hook makes use of ethos and ethnos to prove to his audience and convince them to support the idea of euthanasia. On the other hand, Ben Mattlin is against the physician-assisted suicide. In his article titles ‘Suicide by Choice not So Fast’, Mattlin explains the reasons why he is not supporting the euthanasia idea. Convincingly, he proves how he managed to live beyond the doctors and critiques’ imaginations. More researchers like Robert Olvera and Teresa Wagner have written works to express their views about the euthanasia idea. But, who is who? Who is right and who is wrong? Physician-assisted suicide should be illegal because it is immoral, it increases suffering in society, and it is sometimes applied to end people’s lives without their knowledge. Physician-assisted suicide should be illegal because it is immoral. The moral role of physicians is to protect their patients and not to kill them. Legalizing physician-assisted suicide will make doctors go against what they signed in for when they decided to pursue their career. It is entirely incompatible with the physician’s role as a healer, and it would cause serious societal risks since it is difficult to control. Illegalizing physician-assisted suicide will ensure that doctors carry out their operations correctly because they will know that there is no option even for those people that are terminally ill. They will find appropriate ways to prolong a patient’s life and even MULTIPLE SOURCES POSITION PAPER Surname 3 heal him or her. In places that physician-assisted suicide is legal doctors neglect their patients because of a wrong belief that they are terminally ill and they should die. Other than being immoral, the whole idea of physician-assisted suicide is against all religions. In his article, Robert Olvera does not agree with the issue of euthanasia because it is against the Catholic religion where no one is allowed to end another person’s life either directly or indirectly. People should take care of the sick to ensure that they have everything they need. No one should decide who lives or who dies since that is the work of God. Physician-assisted suicide should be illegal for since it goes against the morals of society as well as religion. Secondly, physician-assisted suicide should be illegal because it increases suffering in society. Wagner (2018), ending people’s lives does not end suffering, but it passes it to other people like his or her family members whose mental health gets affected. It is not easy for family members to get over the fact that their loved one died as a result of physician-assisted. They would forever feel like their loved one would still be around if euthanasia were illegalized. This is dangerous because it can even lead to people suffering from mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression. Others will always blame themselves for the death of their loved ones because they would feel that they could have done something to save his or her life. Similarly, legalizing physician-assisted suicide would make people feel that their life is worthless because they experienced the death of their loved ones who died because he or she had no hope of living. It would even lead to the death of people that would not have died if proper medical attention was provided to them. Seeing euthanasia as a solution will undermine the willingness of physicians and society to learn how to deal with some diseases. This will cause MULTIPLE SOURCES POSITION PAPER Surname 4 more suffering in society because many people will die due to lack of proper methods of treatment. Lastly, physician-assisted suicide should be illegal because it is sometimes applied to end people’s lives without their knowledge. In her article, “Culture of Abandonment,” Teresa Wagner says that making euthanasia legal will lead to the death of many patients without their knowledge and without consenting to it. Many physicians will take advantage of the situation, and they will apply it to patients even without their knowledge. Legalizing physician-assisted suicide will deprive patients their right of receiving proper medical attention from their doctors. It would give doctors the authority of choosing who should live and who should die, and this would be dangerous for the whole society. In his article “Suicide by Choice? Not So Fast,” Ben Mattlin says that there is evidence of abuse in the three states (Oregon, Washington, and Montana) where physician-assisted suicide is already legal. Legalizing it will put society in danger because the chances are that it would be abused. Mattlin (1912) Legal assisted suicide will be just another treatment option for surrogate decision makers to select, even if the patient has made no indication of wanting it. It will make physicians lazy since they will know that there is an option for those people that have no indication of getting better. They will abandon their role of providing medical attention to their patients because of the feeling that they need to die. Teresa Wagner states that, other hospitals and doctors will pressure and then coerce patients to avail themselves of this easy and cheap alternative. In other words, patients will be persuaded to request physician-assisted suicide even when they have no intention of doing it. They will be influenced in a way that they will feel devalued so that they can decide to request for physician-assisted suicide. MULTIPLE SOURCES POSITION PAPER Surname 5 However, some people feel that physician-assisted suicide should be legal because it has benefits. They argue that it ends the suffering of people who are terminally ill. These are those people who could have suffered for a long time and finally die because their condition is incurable. Olvera (2018), physician-assisted suicide is only applied is normally applied for only those people who have less than six months to live. Someone who has hopes of getting healed cannot be forced to ask for physician-assisted suicide. In her article, “Defense of Voluntary Euthanasia, “ Sidney Hook says that physician-assisted suicide should be legalized because it ends the misery and suffering of people who would continue struggling even though they are healed. It would make no sense to heal someone who would live his or her entire life suffering. Sydney uses himself as an example whereby she explains how she cannot even walk after being released from the hospital. He deeply regrets living because of the suffering he is going through. Also, having euthanasia in possession will comfort patients because they will know that they have it in case their end-of-life exceeds their pain threshold. I refute these arguments because they are weak. I strongly believe that no one has the right to take another person’s life even though there are no hopes of living. Terminally ill people should be left to die for themselves without the intervention of a physician. Sidney Hook lives because the doctor refused to discontinue all life-supporting services. If he did, Sidney wouldn’t have been here today to share his story. In conclusion, physician-assisted suicide is an issue that has received the attention of many people. Writers like Sidney Hook, Ben Matlin, Teresa Wagner, and Robert Olvera have written about it. There are those who feel that it should be legalized while others strongly oppose it. However, physician-assisted suicide should be illegal because it is an immoral activity is completely incompatible with the role of doctors as healers. It makes them forget their role as MULTIPLE SOURCES POSITION PAPER Surname 6 individuals who are supposed to provide medical attention to society. Physician-assisted suicide also increases suffering in society. Also, it can be abused in a way that it will be applied to end people’s lives without their knowledge. MULTIPLE SOURCES POSITION PAPER Surname 7 References Hook, S. (1995). In defense of voluntary euthanasia. Arguing euthanasia, 237-240. Mattlin, B. (1912). Suicide by choice? Not so fast. Suicide, 4, 07. Olvera, R. (2018). Robert Olvera: In Support of the End-Of-Life Option Act. Retrieved from https://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/story/opinion/columnists/2015/03/11/robert-olveraaid-dying-assisted-suicide/70142628/ Wagner T. (2018). Culture of Abandonment. Arguing against euthanasia.
