Why Is Assisted Suicide Wrong

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According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, physician-assisted suicide is suicide by a patient facilitated by means or by information provided by a physician aware of the patient's intent. It is intended to end a patient’s suffering if they are going through excruciating pain or who are terminally ill. Doctors administer lethal drugs to a patient and usually the family of the patient are not aware. Many people agree that a physician should not encourage their patients to go through with suicide and that it is an unethical practice. Assisted suicide is wrong because it can affect a physician’s life in negative ways, has major consequences and is widely unaccepted in many religions. A physician involved with the suicide of a patient can be faced with receive a…show more content…
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross said, “Lots of my dying patients say they grow in bounds and leaps, and finish all the unfinished business. But assisting a suicide is cheating them of these lessons, like taking a student out of school before final exams. That's not love, it's projecting your own unfinished business” This unethical practice also give the profession a bad reputation. More and more people are starting to lose trust in medical professionals. If frequently practiced, assisted suicide can inhibit the progress of medical advances, and tends to result in fewer efforts by the doctor to find a solution to the patient's distress. Also assisted suicide devalues human life, and results in a loss of protection for terminally ill patients against doctors writing a prescription for the sole purpose of causing their death. The Royal College of Surgeons argue that "There is a danger that a 'right to die' may become a 'responsibility to die' making already vulnerable people even more vulnerable." A common argument that is made by people who agree with physician-assisted suicide is that health care costs can be reduced and the nurse or doctor can move onto another patient that has a chance at living
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