Lacey Casel

Physician Assisted Suicide: CON case

Physician-assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer,
would be difficult or impossible to control, and would pose serious societal risks. Palliative care
specialist Ira Byock has observed that:
“From its very inception, the profession of medicine has formally prohibited its members from
using their special knowledge to cause death or harm to others. This was – and is – a necessary
protection so that the power of medicine is not used against vulnerable people.”
For this reason and many more, my partner and I disagree with the topic of today’s debate.
Resolved: The United States Federal Government should allow physician assisted suicide in all
US states and territories.
Today we will look at how Physician assisted suicide goes against the Hippocratic Oath, how
many times medical diagnosis are wrong and how physician assisted suicide affects the
physician providing the assist to death.
1: First we will discuss how Physician assisted suicide goes against the Hippocratic Oath.
The Hippocratic Oath states that a physician’s obligation is primum non nocere, “first, do no
harm.” PAS directly contradicts that oath, as deliberately killing a patient is regarded as harm.
One part of the original oath specifically states, “I will use treatment to help the sick according
to my ability and judgment, but never with a view to injury and wrong-doing. Neither will I
administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a course.” We have
many positions or times when an oath is used and going against that oath can have
consequences. Examples are testifying in court, taking a position in office and becoming a
citizen. Doctors take an oath to help patients and do everything they can to help them and PAS
goes against all they stand for. When patients nearing the end of life express fears of losing
control, or being deprived of dignity, compassionate and supportive counseling is called for –
not assistance in committing suicide."
2: Next we will look at how many times medical diagnosis are wrong.
Sometimes the wrong diagnosis is not the biggest deal when it comes to small things but when
it comes to how long you have to live it is a big deal. According to a study done by Johns
Hopkins medical, medical error is now the third leading cause of death with 250,000 deaths in
2016. This number could be higher than recorded even because there is not a specific way
medical error deaths are cataloged. These deaths are the result of a variety of wrong diagnosis,
wrong prescriptions given and many other factors. According to a CNN article, 12 million
Americans are misdiagnosed each year. That is an astronomical number of wrong diagnoses.
We have all heard of cases of someone being told they only had a few months to live and they
‘beat the odds’ and are still kicking 5+ years later. There are also many times patients are told
they are ‘fine’ and ‘healthy’ and a few weeks later they have passed on and it is found that their
doctor missed their diagnosis or didn’t put the symptoms together. How can we rightfully give
someone the means to kill himself or herself when we cannot even guarantee that the
diagnosis they received is 100% correct? Medical diagnosis are determined from passed cases
and the outcomes that came to be. There is no 100% accurate way to calculate how long
someone has to live and how terminal he or she are.
3: Finally we will talk about how physician assisted suicide affects the physicians providing
the drug.
In an article written by physician Ronald W. Pies he goes into detail about the affects
participating in physician-assisted suicide can have on physicians. Physicians who carry out
assisted suicide have a wide variety of emotional and psychological responses. In a structured,
in-depth telephone interview survey of 38 U.S. oncologists who reported participating in
euthanasia or PAS nearly a quarter of the physicians regretted their actions. Another 16 percent
reported that the emotional burden of performing euthanasia or PAS adversely affected their
medical practice. For example, one physician felt so “burned out” that he moved from the city
in which he was practicing to a small town. Oregon initiated a ‘death with dignity act’ in 1998
and in that year only 14 physicians prescribed the lethal prescription. The state’s annual 1998
report observed that:
“For some of these physicians, the process of participating in physician-assisted suicide exacted
a large emotional toll, as reflected by such comments as, ‘It was an excruciating thing to do … it
made me rethink life’s priorities,’ ‘This was really hard on me, especially being there when he
took the pills,’ and ‘This had a tremendous emotional impact.’”
In this debate, we need to not only look at this from the patients view but also from the view of
the caregivers. Many times the people requesting the drug have been seeing their physician for
a while and have made connections with them. The physician is doing everything in their power
to help their patient. When they do lose a patient, it takes a toll on them. Think of the toll it
would have on them knowing they helped they end their life.
Physician assisted suicide is a slippery slope of many factors and arguments.
Today we have looked at how Physician assisted suicide goes against the Hippocratic oath, how
many time medical diagnosis are wrong and how physician assisted suicide affects the
physicians assisting in the death.
For these three reasons, we urge you to vote in negation of today’s topic….
Resolved: The United States Federal Government should allow physician assisted suicide in all
US states and territories.