Physician assisted suicide Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Physician assisted self-annihilation - Essay ExamplePAS is a practice characterized by the physician only providing, but not in soulfulness administering, the means of death (Braddock et al.). It is not the same as other similar practices such as euthanasia (defined as the intentional termination of life by another at the explicit request of the person who dies, it involves causing death through a direct action of a physician for example, the 1998 case where Dr. pitch Kevorkian a Michigan physician injected retardled substances into a forbearing suffering from ALS Lou Gehrigs Disease that caused his death) death Sedation (where the physician administers sufficient sedatives to cause a terminally ill, competent patient to become unconscious, and then permitting the patient to die of starvation, dehydration and the disease which has been contractedBraddock et al.) and Withholding/Withdrawing Life-Sustaining Treatments (where a competent patient refuses to continue taking on-goi ng life-sustaining treatment (Braddock et al.) such as the use of ventilators, dialysis, intravenous fluids and feeding tubes (Quill et al.). man-to-man liberty vs. State entertain There is no doubt that the State has a strong interest in preserving the life of its citizens an interest that stems from the responsibility entrusted to the State. However, the intensity of its interest does not match the interest of a terminally ill individual to use assisted death to end life. This lopsided (against the State) level of interest, if strengthen by prohibition by the State, is seen as an infringement on the individual(prenominal) liberty of the individual (Braddock et al.). respect for Autonomy Taking decisions about the time and method of ones death is considered very personal and confidential (Braddock et al.). Terminally ill patients know they will soon die, and simply want to exercise control over the process (Religioustolerance.org). An important