Euthanasia or Physician Assisted Suicide | Report

RUNNING HEAD: EUTHANASIA OR PHYSICIAN ASSISTED SUICIDE 0
Title: Euthanasia or Physician Assisted Suicide
Name: Student’s Name
Date: 20 March 2020

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Introduction
Euthanasia or Physician Assisted Suicide have increased the public interest in which
despite the ethical prohibitions. It is the moral and ethical practice as it gives the patient
freedom from the pain and it is treated as an intervention for the good end of life (Banovic,
Turanjanin and Miloradovic 2017). Moreover, there are certain factors which are
considered by the physician in which the physician undertakes the practice by abiding with
the ethical and legal compliances. There are supportive arguments that describe this practice
as ethical and moral and also making the practice for the benefit of the patient which can
improve the healthcare outcome. In against this practice, there are counter arguments which
can make the euthanasia as an unethical practice as it can violate the rights of the individuals.
Here, the assignment has discussed two supportive arguments and one counter argument for
the thesis statement which explains the Physician Assisted Suicide for the public interest. It
has utilized the ethical theory of utilitarianism and deontological theory of ethics.
Supportive Arguments
Argument 1: Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS) is a good end of life that reduces the
pains and sufferings of the patients who have been suffering from a long-term suffering from
a painful disease. Particularly, this practice is based on the best interest of the patients in
which PAS can be the healing intervention which can reduce the pain of patients. This is
treated as the freedom from the prolonged disease in which the doctor’s intention is to reduce
the sufferings rather than killing of the patients (Sulmasy and Mueller 2017). The
application of utilitarianism theory can be seen from the fact that the practitioner will make
the maximum benefit of the patient and decreases the pain of the patients. Also, there are
psychological factors are associated with the PAS such as anxiety and depression which can
arise as a result of thinking about Euthanasia (Jamesa 2016). Thus, PAS can save the

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patients from the future health issues. This is also regarded as a utilitarian argument which
will reduce the sufferings and making the intervention for the best interest of the patients.
According to utilitarian approach, the doctor is required to make the greatest
happiness of the patient in which euthanasia can be adopted to end the life in painless
manner. Moreover, Physician Assisted Suicide can be the practice which can be adopted for
making the patient free from the sustained of prolonged life (Treanor 2018). This can be
combined with the undertaking of the intervention for giving the quality of death by giving
due importance to the dignity of the patient. This way the people get the freedom from the
terminal disease and abstains the life of the patient who do not want to live more. Thus,
utilitarianism argument in support of the fact that the it can assure the public interests depicts
that it can be said that euthanasia is itself a justification for the reduction of patient’s
suffering rather than action. This often saves a lot of money of patients which is being
incurred on the treatment of the patient’s injury or disease which cannot be treated easily.
Argument 2: The practice of Euthanasia can be helpful for the patients as it will
reduce the time, efforts and cost invested by the patient’s families. When the patient is
suffering from the incurable disease, it is irrelevant to make the investments into the health of
that patient. By applying the utilitarianism theory of ethics, it can be said that the practice of
euthanasia can reduce the burden of caregiver which can be the effective way to make steps
for the benefit for all the people such as care givers and family members. This can often
reduce the burden of caregiver such as financial, emotional and social. Besides, PAS provides
the quality end of life to the patient which certainly reduces the load of medical department in
the coordination and access to care (Quill, Arnold and Youngner 2017). As the patients
are highly dependable on others, the patients seek for help from others for the daily. This
reliability directly impacts the human sense of dignity. This requires the practice of
euthanasia.