Patients and medical professionals may be roughly characterized as the potential victims on either side of the physician-assisted suicide (PAS) legalization debate. On the one hand, patients may experience coercion, abuse, and insufficient safeguards if PAS is made legal (Arras, 1995). Concerns may also exist on how the availability of PAS may affect vulnerable groups, such as those who are mentally ill or have a physical disability. However, if PAS is still illegal, people who choose to terminate their life could be forced to go through needless pain, lose their autonomy, and have their right to self-determination violated. Medical practitioners may have moral conundrums and legal repercussions if they help people terminate their lives.
Arras’s idea of legislative restriction and intensive medical intervention offers a halfway ground between full legalization and a ban on PAS. This strategy emphasizes the need for strong protections to guarantee that patients are making informed choices and that their autonomy is preserved (Arras, 1995). It also recognizes the need for prompt medical treatment to lessen suffering and enhance patients’ quality of life who are terminally sick. In the end, Arras concludes that PAS must be made illegal until more solid proof of the dependability of different protections is available (Arras, 1995). This viewpoint shows that he thinks the hazards of PAS exceed the advantages that it could have and that additional study is required to figure out the best way to guarantee patient safety when PAS is requested.
There is a legitimate case that adjustments to the existing legal status of PAS are necessary to uncover the evidence Arras is requesting. It could be difficult to gather information and research PAS’ impact on patients and medical professionals without legalizing it (Arras, 1995). The decision to legalize PAS ultimately rests with politicians, who must assess the possible advantages and disadvantages of doing so and determine if the data is adequate to support a change in the law.
Reference
Arras, J. D. (1995). Physician-assisted suicide: A tragedy of medical practice. The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, 68(4), 455-465.