Assisted Suicide
Death with dignity regulations permit eligible, psychologically fit, critically ill adults to ask for assisted suicide with the aim of speeding up their death. Physician-assisted suicide denotes a practice that enables the critically ill patients to request for help from their doctors to terminate their life (Math & Chaturvedi, 2012). Critically ill or dying patients have a right to die since they are already in the progression of dying and pursuing the chance to quicken an unavoidable and looming demise cannot be likened to suicide as it only helps them avoid prolonged suffering. The fundamental aim of such a patient is not to terminate his/her life but to get dignity in an already imminent departure from the world (Tong, 2007). Such patients are terminally ill, and even if not assisted to die, they will still pass way anyway, but assisting them makes them forego much affliction. Giving the critically ill patients a right to die enables them to take part in the process of lessening the pain of their final hours, which is not tantamount to suicide as the illness (for instance, cancer) is already killing them.
Health care professionals have a duty to assist the terminally ill patients to die. They are permitted to accept a patient’s request to end his/her life in cases where there is no effective solution for their recuperation or continued living. By helping the critically ill patients to die, health care professionals give them the chance to have a dignified and noble death (Math & Chaturvedi, 2012). Moreover, after authentication by medical professionals, friends and family members have an obligation to assist their terminally ill loved ones die following their request. Rather than dying in the critical care unit amid strangers, terminally ill patients get the opportunity of dying when surrounded by people they adore. This makes them pass away with dignity while feeling satisfied and comforted.
References
Math, S. B., & Chaturvedi, S. K. (2012). Euthanasia: Right to life vs right to die. The Indian Journal of Medical Research, 136(6), 899-901. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3612319/
Tong, R. (2007). New Perspectives in healthcare ethics: An interdisciplinary and crosscultural approach. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. Retrieved from https://www.amazon.com/Perspectives-Healthcare-Ethics-Interdisciplinary-Crosscultural/dp/0130613479