Schuklenk (2015) describes euthanasia as a kind of killing performed to patients who are disabled or terminally ill as a result of irreversible coma or painful and incurable disease. One form of Euthanasia is the Physician-assisted suicide. Physician-assisted suicide happens when a disabled or a terminally ill patients are assisted by a physician or other medical practitioner to terminate their own life, either by giving the patient instructions on the suicide method to use or giving a lethal drug prescription to commit suicide. Several European countries have accepted physician-assisted suicide practices and euthanasia. However, in the United States, physician-assisted suicide has only been legalized in five states. Currently, the United States has not legalized euthanasia, but a vigorous debate on whether all states should emphases physician-assisted suicide and legalize euthanasia is going on.
However, what derails the legalization of physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia is the controversial arguments …show more content…
The argument is made on the bases of the idea that helping patients avoid suffering and pain is within the physician moral responsibility. As such, the physicians should do all that it takes to ensure the patients go through pain or suffering even if it requires for the termination of their lives. The second argument is that a person is in charge of his life and preventing him to commit suicide for his own benefit should be considered as an infringement of a basic human right. The third argument in favor of physician-assisted suicide is that the physician can relieve patients’ families from watching them suffer and the patients from watching their body’s status deteriorate. Fourth, physician-assisted suicide reduces expenses associated with health care both to the medical system and the