Moral Perspectives On Physician Assisted Suicide - 2738 Words

Moral Perspectives on Physician-Assisted Suicide Maggie Conway Memorial University of Newfoundland Moral Perspectives on Physician-Assisted Suicide When your conscience says law is immoral, don t follow it - Jack Kevorkian Introduction Physician-assisted suicide, also known as voluntary active euthanasia, is easily one of the most prominent and controversial issues in media circulation today. Definitively, physician assisted suicide is as a physician’s knowingly providing the means to commit suicide to a competent patient who voluntarily makes this request and uses those means independently to take his or her own life (Fins Bacchetta, 1995). Up until very recently, physician-assisted suicide has been illegal†¦show more content†¦The detailed regulations that accompany this ruling have yet to be written, leaving many healthcare professionals, patient groups and citizens to worry, fearful at the potential misuse of this new law. The most well-known case of physician-assisted suicide involved Jack Kevorkian, a retired pathologist who assisted nearly 100 suicides between 1990 and 1998. He ultimately was convicted of murder in 1999. The ethics of physician assisted suicide has been one of the most prevalent debates regarding this issue. Major concerns are maintenance of dignity and preservation of the autonomy of the individual. Contemporary ethical theories have been dissected and interpreted to find reasons to both support and oppose physician-assisted suicide. For example, a deontologist, concerned solely with the intrinsic right or wrong-making characteristic of an action, regardless of consequence, would most likely deem this or any form of euthanasia completely unacceptable (Gula 1990). The fundamental criterion of deontology is conformity to moral duties. A practitioner of this ideology might argue that as moral agents, we have an absolute duty not to commit murder, and physician-assisted suicide, regardless of context and circumstance, is ultimately murder. Just as deontologists are concerned with the â€Å"Right†, utilitarian theorists are more concerned the â€Å"Good†. Utilitarianism, i n contrast to deontology, is an ethical theory based on whether the consequences of