2. HEAR SOME ARGUMENTS IN FAVOR OF PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED SUICIDE
"A person should be free to choose to die when life ceases to be worth living."
The Argument: Each of us has the right to determine whether we want to live or die. In 1976 the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that the parents of Karen Ann Quinlan, who had lapsed into a "persistent vegetative state", could remove her from the respirator. This signal victory of the right-to-die movement affirmed that death is sometimes an acceptable alternative to continued medical treatment. Under certain extraordinary conditions a suffering patient may be justified in wanting to end his life, and there is no sensible reason why he should not be able to seek the aid of a physician.
The Response: The practice of suicide is contrary to the values of most Americans. Our lives are sacred, and we do not have the right to dispense with them as we please. Withholding unnecessary and unhelpful medical treatment from a patient in a coma is a far different scenario from asking a doctor to prescribe poison for someone under his care. The analogy is a false one, and we must be on our guard against "slippery slope" arguments that might some day lead to the killing of the weak and the infirm.
"Sometimes it is not in a patient's interests to be kept alive."
The Argument: Prolonging life under extreme conditions is cruel and unnecessary. The Hippocratic Oath enjoins physicians to act solely for the good of the sick. In certain rare cases modern medical care is not able to ease the physical and mental suffering of a terminally ill patient and the doctor may be doing more harm by keeping the patient alive against his wishes than by helping him to die.
The Response: You can quibble all you like, but when doctors take the Hippocratic Oath they are promising not to do harm, plain and simple. Prescribing poisonous pills which will certainly kill the patient in a short time is obviously "doing harm" by any definition you care to offer. It is important for the future of medical care in this country not to blur the lines between medicine and poison. There is too much danger of abuse (particularly if you consider every such "treatment" to be abuse).
"The option of physician-assisted suicide would give patients and their families peace of mind."
The Argument: Having the option of a dignified death prevents suicide and homicide. There are cases when, out of fear that he will be incapable of acting later on account of his deteriorating physical condition, a patient takes his own life far sooner than is necessary, or asks someone other than a doctor to help him end his life. There would be fewer suicides if patients could be reassured that they will have the option of physician-assisted suicide, should it become necessary.
The Response: There is not enough evidence to prove that the availability of PAS has any effect on the occurrence of suicide or homicide. More likely, PAS will cause suicide rates to increase, as the state and the medical authorities actually encourage people to kill themselves, instead of encouraging them to seek proper treatment.
