Assisted duicide

In all of history, "there are only three circumstances that have been an acceptable way for taking a life: killing in self-defense or in protection of another life, killing in war, and in the case of capital punishment, killing by agents of the state. This law doesn't allow anywhere in the United States the right for one person to kill another even if the latter requests it to be done" (Callahan, pg. 71). However, Dr. Jack Kevorkian has committed this last type of killing several times. In the Hippocrates Oath, a physician swears not to give poison to anyone, though asked to do so, nor to suggest such a plan (Biema).

With the technology and advancements in medicine today, who is to say that a person's illness co

uldn't be cured within the next few months? Why should a person have to make the choice of ending his or her life if (s)he is unsure about a cure? How can someone else know if another person is really experiencing unbearable pain and suffering? Who gets to be the person who tells another that his or her life isn't worth living?

Herbert Hendin, M.D., a medical director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in New York quoted, "Most of the people who request assisted suicide are either depressed or terrified and doctors need to know how to deal with this." What is being done about this? It seems that both sides agree that most important step is to improve the care at the end of a patients life. The American Hospital Association is planning new programs to teach doctors and nurses better pain-management techniques. The American College of Physicians (ACP) has also appointed a medical panel to develop recommendations for physicians in training and those who care for dying patients. The ACP also is developing educational programs focusing on controlling symptoms including pain and diagnosing and managing depression at the end of life (Christensen). This is a important step towards the battle against assisted suicide. If a person cares enough about someone else's life, then it is that life that will live a long a happy life

There would be an abandonment of hope. Every physician has had a patient or two that has miraculously recovered. Hope wouldn't even be a possibility! The am

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