Please look at these 3 articles and respond to the issues raised therein about health care.
1. What Does Quality Really Mean?
(Students Note: The commentators are respected experts in the field.)
2. New York Times: Physician-assisted Suicide
3. WBUR report
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In each case, I believe that the ethical validity of assisted suicides should depend on the situation rather than. In the WBUR report, they mentioned that many of the assisted suicides are due to terminally ill diseases and the people who are assisting are usually family and friends. In the second article they mention that the persecution depends on if the assistor has anything to gain from the death of the suicider. In many of the cases where the Britons are going to switzerland to suicide, there is no ill intention on either the suiciders side of their accomplice. I believe that these individuals should have the right to take their own lives if they believe that they would only suffer greatly for the rest of their lives if they don't.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the law in itself is somewhat retrictive in that there might be greater good and less suffering overall in the world if some of these deaths were allowed to occur on British soil [rather than the need to go to Switzerland]. Obviously, the individuals who want to suicide have a clear reason they do; it is not as if they woke up suddenly and decided it would be a good day to suicide. A key point to beneficience is not simply that people should do good in the world, but that they should do their best to prevent suffering as well. I believe that if in the end, assisted suicide is helping the individuals die peacfully, the law if only hindering the prevention of suffering to occur.
Overall, I think the list of conditions that was set out in order to inform the public whether they would be persecuted for "assisting" in suicide will help define the fine line between assisting suicide for self profit, or assisting suicide out of compassion. Although it may be morally wrong to help individuals suicide, I believe the end product, in a consequentialisy fashion, justifies the actions.
~Tully Cheng