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

Physician assisted suicide - Essay ExamplePAS is a practice characterized by the physician only providing, but not personally 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 engage action of a physician for example, the 1998 case where Dr. Jack Kevorkian a Michigan physician injected simplenessled substances into a patient suffering from ALS Lou Gehrigs Disease that caused his death) closing Sedation (where the physician administers sufficient sedatives to cause a terminally ill, competent patient to become unconscious, then permitting the patient to die of starvation, dehydration and the disease which has been contractBraddock et al.) and Withholding/Withdrawing Life-Sustaining Treatments (where a competent patient refuses to continue taking on-going life-sustaining tre atment (Braddock et al.) such as the use of ventilators, dialysis, intravenous fluids and feeding tubes (Quill et al.). separate liberty vs. State interest 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 intensiveness 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 strengthened by prohibition by the State, is seen as an infringement on the personal liberty of the individual (Braddock et al.).Respect for Autonomy Taking decisions about the time and manner 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