Essay on The Fine Line Between Legalized Murder And Mercy Killing

2276 Words Dec 15th, 2016 10 Pages
The fine line between legalized murder and mercy killing. Physician assisted suicide is a practice where terminally ill patients with only a few months to live are given the option to die on their own term. Despite the fact that it has been legalized in a few countries it is widely controversial. Candidates for physician assisted suicide are patients over 18 years old who have been given less than six months to live. Terminally ill patients are prescribed lethal drugs with the intent to end their lives. Although terminally ill patients should fight for their lives, patients should have the right to die on their own terms.
A passage written hundreds of years ago is set as the standard of medical practice. The Hippocratic Oath is a Greek text written in the 15th century to be the basis of medicine. Although over the years the oath has been modernized, many physicians around the world pledge to abide by the Hippocratic Oath and its standards. The main point in the oath is “first, do no harm” (Zamichow) but many people argue that 's a very broad statement. For some it means a physician should never knowingly take a person 's life with or without their consent, so that puts into question physician assisted suicide. Is helping assist a terminally ill patient who wants to die doing harm? Dr. Charles Plows, director of the AMA’s Ethics and Judicial Affairs Committee, opinion is "It is unethical for a physician to intentionally cause the death of a patient, it is a violation of…

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