[Should

Medically Assisted
Suicides be Legalised?]
[11 November 2016]

[Joanne Muk Rui Yi]

Claim: Should medically-assisted suicides be legalised?

Can a person see death as a friend? Death comes second on the charts of leading

phobias in the United States (Fear/Phobia Statistics, 2016). Rarely does one think

death can be beneficial, thus shunning medically-assisted suicides. However,

medically-assisted suicides can relieve a patient of his or her suffering and can lessen

the monetary weight of hospitalisation of the terminally ill. Even though some may

quote the Hippocratic Oath and argue the ethicalities of a physician helping their

patient die, the relevance of the oath in modern society is poor and a patient is

carefully examined before allowed to be assisted in suicide. Hence, the legalisation of

medically-assisted suicides should be arranged.

Medically-assisted suicide is defined as the option to inject a lethal dose of a drug into

the patients self in order to terminate his or her own life, where the drug is provided

by a certified medical practitioner. Whereas, euthanasia is when the doctor does not

only provide the lethal drug, but also injects it into the patient (Euthanasia, 2008).

Euthanasia can also be performed without the patients consent which makes it too

big of a leap for humanity at this point. Therefore, as medically-assisted suicide is a

smaller and more reasonable step, this essay will tackle its ban.

One should be empathetically aware of what the patient desires. In a way, it is selfish

to keep a patient alive against their will. Countless people have been diagnosed with

incurable terminal illnesses or disabilities. One should be more understanding of a

patients situation and their views. Tony Nicklinson was suffering from locked-in

syndrome which disallowed him from moving, but was able to think consciously. He
was not allowed to go through with medically legal suicide which meant that he had

to suffer for a longer time until he finally died in his own home (Burns, 2012).

When one argues that a person may still have a chance to be cured and live a longer

life, has one considered that the real reason they keep that optimistic view could be

for their own sake? Is it harder for the patient or the patients family and friends to

deal with the patients death? Knowing that those who are close to the deceased

would be the ones grieving, they may want to avoid losing a close relationship. This

leads to their reluctance in letting someone close go. Therefore, not allowing ones

own biased emotions to cloud ones judgement, is crucial to truly understanding the

needs of the suffering patient.

Patients given the option of medically-assisted suicides are ethically selected. Before

given the authority to be allowed to apply for medically-assisted suicides, patients

must fulfil certain criteria. Being mentally stable and not depressed is one of the

conditions (Salma, 2016). Many are affected by depression, hence, wouldnt be

allowed to go through with medically-assisted suicide. However, when legalising

medically-assisted suicide, its helping those who are sane enough to realise what they

want. Mind-sets are equally important in a persons survival, those who are not

depressed, but feel are ready to die, would have a lower chance of survival due to

their negative and accepting view. Aside from the sanity of the patients, their

remaining life span is already short (Emanuel & Battin, 1998). 90% of patients from

the study by Emanuel and Battin had their lives shortened by medically-assisted

suicide by a maximum of four weeks and a minimum of a day. Hence, they should be

granted their death instead of prolonged suffering.

Patients must also have full consent after talking and gaining the approval of at least

one other qualified medical practitioner (Cheong, 2015). Upon requesting for the

approval of a medically-assisted suicide, apart from counselling, the patient has to go

through two medical screenings to acquire the best recommendation by qualified

medical practitioners for the patient. Strict guidelines from The Dutch Termination of

Life on Request document would also be thoroughly followed for each case of

medically-assisted suicide. Along with implementing the legalisation of medically-

assisted suicide, further restrictions can be added to prevent the abuse of the lethal

drug. Therefore, the current state of medically-assisted suicides may not be perfect,

but improvements can be made with strict rules in order to provide the best option for

the patient in need without faulty usage of the drug.

The glimpse of hope of survival may not be worth the mental and monetary weight. A

doctors survival prediction of the terminally ill are optimistically inaccurate. A BMJ

case study has shown that the clinical prediction of survival is usually overestimated

while the actual survival time period is shorter (Glare, et al., 2003). The study found

that 27% of the cases were predicted to be at least four weeks longer than the actual

survival and only 12% were predicted to be at least four weeks shorter. As awful as it

may be, this suggests that many patients are not able to live up to the medical

predictions for survival. In fact, in the case study, more than half of the patients only

lived up to four weeks, further amplifying the redundancy of unnecessary suffering.

In addition, the patient is required to pay for his or her own lengthened suffering, only

to have a high possibility of passing away from a chronic illness, and even more so, a

terminal disease (Care of Chronic Illness in the Last Two Years of Life). The medical

fees for the terminally ill are undeniably high for the patient and the country

(Scitovsky, 2005) and can cost about $35 000 to $40 000, while the cost of attaining
medically-assisted suicide is only an average of $35 (Economic Aspects of

Euthanasia). Hence, medically-assisted suicide would certainly be far less of a

financial burden than medical care which is not a guarantee, but a bargain.

However, the Hippocratic Oath reasons that medically-assisted suicide should be

avoided. The Hippocratic Oath is an oath taken by certified medical practitioners

since olden times and can still be sacred to some (Definition of Hippocratic Oath,

2016). According to the traditional Hippocratic Oath, I will neither give a deadly

drug to anybody who asked for it. As something thats meant to be the ethical

guideline for medical practitioners, breaking one of its rules would be considered a

wrongdoing for them. However, the oath is slightly ambiguous, stating I will keep

them from harm and injustice which can imply that to keep the patient from harm,

the patient should be relieved of his or her suffering through medically-assisted

suicide. Apart from the ambiguity, many doctors in this modern day do not see the

relevance in the Hippocratic Oath anymore (Tyson, 2001). People have grown and are

accepting new opinions and views on medically-assisted suicide. Therefore, rendering

the ethicalities of the Hippocratic Oath irrelevant.

To state the unavoidable truth, death is inevitable. It should not be taken lightly, but

labelling it as the bane of every persons existence is not entirely true. Medically-

assisted suicide is an example of viewing death in a better light and legalising it can

unveil the possibility that death can be helpful in limited ways.

In a nutshell, a patient should have the right to choose medically-assisted suicide

when they are ready to accept death. The process of appealing is strict and well cared

for, making medically-assisted suicides safe enough for legalising so as to avoid the

burdens that may come from a terminally ill patient. Even though some may fight
with the ethicalities of the Hippocratic Oath, the modern day culture is unable to

relate to the societal beliefs of the past. Therefore, medically-assisted suicides should

be made legal.
Works Cited

Burns, J. F. (2012, August 22). Briton Who Fought for Assisted Suicide is Dead.

The New York Times.

Salma, K. (2016, August 7). Is there room to rethink suicide? The Straits Times.

Euthanasia. (2008, November 17). Retrieved from

https://www.moh.gov.sg/content/moh_web/home/pressRoom/Parliam

entary_QA/2008/Euthanasia.html

Care of Chronic Illness in the Last Two Years of Life. (n.d.). (The Trustees of

Dartmouth College) Retrieved November 9, 2016, from The Dartmouth

Atlas of Health Care :

http://www.dartmouthatlas.org/data/topic/topic.aspx?cat=1

Cheong, K. L. (2015, July 25). Singapore likely to approve doctor-assisted suicide.

(Singapore Model Parliament) Retrieved November 9, 2016, from

Singapore Model Parliament:

http://www.modelparliament.sg/singapore-likely-to-approve-doctor-

assisted-suicide/

Definition of Hippocratic Oath. (2016, May 13). (MedicineNet) Retrieved

Novemeber 9, 2016, from MedicineNet.com:

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=20909

Economic Aspects of Euthanasia. (n.d.). (The Life Resources Charitable Trust)

Retrieved November 9, 2016, from A New Zealand Resource for Life

Related Issues:
 http://www.life.org.nz/euthanasia/euthanasiapoliticalkeyissues/econom

ics/

Emanuel, E. J., & Battin, M. P. (1998, July 16). What Are the Potential Cost Savings

from Legalizing Physician-Assisted Suicide?

Fear/Phobia Statistics. (2016, September 4). (Statistic Brain Research Institute)

Retrieved November 9, 2016, from Statistic Brain:

http://www.statisticbrain.com/fear-phobia-statistics/

Glare, P., Virik, K., Jones, M., Hudson, M., Eychmuller, S., Simes, J., & Christakis, N.

(2003, July 24). A systematic review of physicians' survival predictions in

terminally ill cancer patients.

Scitovsky, A. A. (2005, December). "The High Cost of Dying": What Do the Data

Show?

Tyson, P. (2001, March 27). The Hippocratic Oath Today. (WGBH Educational

Foundation) Retrieved November 9, 2016, from NOVA:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/hippocratic-oath-today.html