I’m in favor of a bright line on doctor assisted suicide–one that says no way. It protects patients and physicians from families who want grandma’s assets but not grandma. It protects inconvenient people from being disposed of, too.
Several people I know wanted to kill themselves right after terrible injuries. They weren’t allowed to. Because people were willing to help them live, but not help them die, they are enjoying life today.
Those who support legalizing suicide should leave physicians out of the mix. Physicians have a very different professional responsibility and patients who rely on them for advice shouldn’t have to wonder if their doc is advising them to kill themselves to free up a hospital bed or fulfill his governmenet quota so that he can get paid.
Instead, people in favor of legalizing suicide should be required to agree to create a public corps of executioners who have enough medical training to assist. Their uniform should be required to include black hoods.
“Scope-of-practice” laws in thirty-two states require nurse practitioners to practice care under supervision of a physician and thus restrict them from practicing on their own.
Although these regulations are touted as patient safeguards, they serve little purpose other than to protect primary care physicians from competition with lessor-trained caregivers. I respect doctors, but there’s no reason why people should not be able to make their own decision about whether they see a physician or a physicians’ assistant in private practice.
I thought doctor-assisted suicide would fit into Zeke Emmanuel’s view that health services cannot be guaranteed to “individuals who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens…. An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia.”
A doctor’s primary job is preserving life and well-being. Suicide is antithetical to that nature. Therefore the two should be, and must remain, divorced.
The first link makes sense. There is only so much nurses know and can do. Their knowledge and capabilities will never be the same as those of an actual physician when it comes to treating and diagnosing patients. They should definitely be allowed to practice on their own in certain minor areas, but when it comes to major procedures, it only makes sense for a physician to supervise their work.
yeah, physicians should not be involved in assisting suicide. their only responsibility should be to help the patient get better and encourage them along the way. linda makes excellent points as well because no one but the patient is in a position to make the decision between life and death, and even the patient may not be objectively avaluating the situation when they are suffering
In favor of what?! Having the right to do as they please with their own body? Perhaps it’s just the language used here, but I’d expect a different reaction from this crowd on an issue so foundational to personal liberty. The arrogance of anyone to sit here and dictate the terms of how or when someone else will be permitted to peacefully leave this world, it’s just so sad. I don’t care for the health care bureaucracy either, but I’m much more afraid of the fact that I live in a society that continues to deprive me of my most basic rights than I am of a doctor that secretly wants me dead so he can make an extra dollar. I’ve never heard anyone advocate for walking around handing out loaded guns to the depressed or injured or extremely ill. How we go about addressing the fact that we cannot deprive individual human beings of their right to take their own life if, at the end of the road, there is no persuading them to do otherwise, is a topic that deserves a more sincere treatment.
I’m in favor of a bright line on doctor assisted suicide–one that says no way. It protects patients and physicians from families who want grandma’s assets but not grandma. It protects inconvenient people from being disposed of, too.
Several people I know wanted to kill themselves right after terrible injuries. They weren’t allowed to. Because people were willing to help them live, but not help them die, they are enjoying life today.
Those who support legalizing suicide should leave physicians out of the mix. Physicians have a very different professional responsibility and patients who rely on them for advice shouldn’t have to wonder if their doc is advising them to kill themselves to free up a hospital bed or fulfill his governmenet quota so that he can get paid.
Instead, people in favor of legalizing suicide should be required to agree to create a public corps of executioners who have enough medical training to assist. Their uniform should be required to include black hoods.
“Scope-of-practice” laws in thirty-two states require nurse practitioners to practice care under supervision of a physician and thus restrict them from practicing on their own.
Although these regulations are touted as patient safeguards, they serve little purpose other than to protect primary care physicians from competition with lessor-trained caregivers. I respect doctors, but there’s no reason why people should not be able to make their own decision about whether they see a physician or a physicians’ assistant in private practice.
I thought doctor-assisted suicide would fit into Zeke Emmanuel’s view that health services cannot be guaranteed to “individuals who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens…. An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia.”
http://www.jstor.org/pss/3528746
A doctor’s primary job is preserving life and well-being. Suicide is antithetical to that nature. Therefore the two should be, and must remain, divorced.
Ah, yes, Dodd-Frank. Otherwise known as the banking regulations used by Lucifer.
Hahaha, Paul.
The first link makes sense. There is only so much nurses know and can do. Their knowledge and capabilities will never be the same as those of an actual physician when it comes to treating and diagnosing patients. They should definitely be allowed to practice on their own in certain minor areas, but when it comes to major procedures, it only makes sense for a physician to supervise their work.
yeah, physicians should not be involved in assisting suicide. their only responsibility should be to help the patient get better and encourage them along the way. linda makes excellent points as well because no one but the patient is in a position to make the decision between life and death, and even the patient may not be objectively avaluating the situation when they are suffering
“..people in favor of legalizing suicide”.
In favor of what?! Having the right to do as they please with their own body? Perhaps it’s just the language used here, but I’d expect a different reaction from this crowd on an issue so foundational to personal liberty. The arrogance of anyone to sit here and dictate the terms of how or when someone else will be permitted to peacefully leave this world, it’s just so sad. I don’t care for the health care bureaucracy either, but I’m much more afraid of the fact that I live in a society that continues to deprive me of my most basic rights than I am of a doctor that secretly wants me dead so he can make an extra dollar. I’ve never heard anyone advocate for walking around handing out loaded guns to the depressed or injured or extremely ill. How we go about addressing the fact that we cannot deprive individual human beings of their right to take their own life if, at the end of the road, there is no persuading them to do otherwise, is a topic that deserves a more sincere treatment.