Should Doctors Be Allowed to Assist Patients Who Wants to End Their Life?

Should doctors be allowed to assist patients who wants to end their life?

Xing Bo

Euthanasia, by Mental Health Weekly Digest ’s definition(2012, pp.147), refers to a physician administers who lethal drugs to a patient with the explicit intention of ending the patients’ life at their own request. One who is familiar with the euthanasia might assumes that doctor-assisted deaths are easily arranged, and then regard it as a “gentle and painless death”. However, By carefully investigating a vast array of relevant information, it seems that euthanasia is not as moral and easy as it is often suggested. In order to help people change attitudes toward euthanasia, this essay will focus on three perspectives: professional, religious and cultural.

There is no doubt that a doctor’s profession is to heal the wounded and rescue the dying. Assisting a patient to die is never their mission. According to a Turkish study(2006, pp.135-145), only 33.6% of the participants did not object to euthanasia while about 7.9% were asked to perform. Noticeablly, there are 8.7% of all health professions who claimed that euthanasia could be abused even if a euthanasia law were passed. Others, neither hold reservations nor opposition. It can be concluded that, euthanasia is a hard choice in this field. On the other hand, moral hazard such as risks that a doctor will shoulder when patients change their mind maybe caused. Therefore, how professions judge if one patient is incorrigible surely plays a cruial role. Example as the way patients express their will. Every patients’ free will have to be considered. If it is not real or patients chose to end their lives under a great external pressure, euthanasia is obviously not a perfect choice. Doctors and patients will both benefit, when euthanasia is not an option. In these circumstance, reject euthanasia can prevent malicious murder as well as patients’ rash decision - like temporary emotion urge.

Besides professional factors, studies also supports religion as a major factor which related to euthanasia attitudes. Defenders and opponents here tell a different story by dividing into two groups: people who belong to religious or non-religious people. The first group appears to believe in God, life and death. As a result, religious people tend to consider euthanasia as immoral. “It is immoral to allow human beings to die when you can avoid their death at a minor inconvenience to yourself”, said Nicola Bourbaki (2001, pp.436). However, the latter group tends to accept euthanasia. “Their attitudes are possibly less directed by a religious authority but more influenced by intuitive relativistic