Physician Assisted Suicides Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Physician Assisted Suicides - Essay Example wal of the life-sustaining treatments or administering pain medication that will hasten death through impairing critical body organ functions such as respiration (Jeffrey 73). The recent efforts of legalizing physician-assisted suicide have triggered intense medical, legal and social debates on whether physicians must be granted the authority to assist patients to intentionally end their lives. Physicians have a professional responsibility of respecting the patient’s choice and thus assisted suicide will enable the patient’s escape the pain and suffering in case of terminal illnesses (Jeffrey 68). Furthermore, a well-regulated assisted suicide practice will eliminate the slippery slope and ensure proper decision-making in assisting the patients commit suicide. The paper is addressed to health care policy makers that are tasked with offering guidelines on physician-assisted suicides in different parts of the country on how standardized physician-assisted suicide will be beneficial to the health care sector. The paper will discuss the arguments that have been put forward for and against physician-assisted suicide. The paper will make a conclusion on why the federal government should consider legalizing and regulating the practice since it is beneficial for patients suffering from extreme suffering due to life-threatening illnesses. Thesis statement: the federal government should legalize physician-assisted suicide I believe the federal government should legalize physician-assisted suicide in order to eliminate the terminal pain and suffering experienced by patients suffering from acute diseases. Although many physicians claim that they have the professional responsibility of preserving life and enhancing health care even for the terminally ill patients, the physicians have the knowledge and skills to assess the hopelessness situations of some patients and thus should assist them in committing suicide rather than leaving the patient undergo unbearable suffering