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The Medically Assisted Dying Issue Must Be Considered
Death is something healthcare fights with all its might, but there is another consideration, and that is the mental and physical pain of patients and their wishes to end it.
Life is a precious gift that those in healthcare feel committed to prolonging, even in the face of withering odds of patient suffering or being placed in a coma or other extraordinary measures to keep them alive. We are not taught to help people end their lives, and this has traditionally been seen by religions as a sin, by legal authorities as a crime, and by healthcare professionals as unethical. The worldview regarding assisted dying by medical professionals, however, has been changing over the past several decades, and some countries have initiated laws toward that end.
In 11 of the 50 U.S. states (as of 2023), adults may receive medical help to end their lives. Doctors in Washington, DC, can write prescriptions for drugs that people can self-administer because of the Death With Dignity Act 2016. Now, more laws have been passed that permit more types of healthcare workers in that district to approve requests for medically assisted death. The drugs can also be mailed to patients instead of having to be picked up in person.
.When physician-assisted death (PAD) has been facilitated, it has been when the patient had no hope of…
