Euthanasia: Physician Assisted Suicide

Euthanasia, or physician assisted suicide, is a highly debatable topic amongst physicians. They argue about euthanasia being ethical or non-ethical. Some physicians argue that euthanasia is a free choice by the person and they should be in control of their own live and when they want to die. However, other physicians argue that euthanasia is not voluntary chosen because it is the pain talking and not the person. The person only wants the quickest way to get rid of their pain and that makes euthanasia not voluntarily chosen. Also, as physicians they should never resort to killing, or “help to die”, the patient because there is always a chance that the patient can survive and live a longer life.

In the article by Jean Davies, “Raping and making love are different concepts: so are killing and voluntary euthanasia.” Jean Davis claim is the just like how rape and love-making are similar yet different, so is voluntary euthanasia and kill. Both are similar that it ends a person’s life. However, euthanasia is voluntarily chosen by the person and killing is not. “No one is any doubt about what constitutes the difference between love-making and rape; it is the consent of the receiver of the act.” This means that just how rape and love-making are similar acts so is euthanasia it is just based on the receiver of the act. This means if the person wanted to die then it is not killing the person, which makes euthanasia voluntary in this situation.

However, in an article just made a year after Jean Davis’ article, by Neil Campbell called, “A problem for the idea of voluntary euthanasia.” Neil claims that when a person is in pain they only want to let the pain stop and not really die, which makes that euthanasia was never voluntary and it is only the pain making the person make the decision. For example, if you ask many people how are fully healthy if they want to die more than likely they would say, no. So, the only reason the person wants to die in the first place is that the person is experiencing excruciating pain and want to get rid of the pain so the person is not thinking logically and only wants the pain to stop. “If the pain and suffering are by definition unbearable, then it seems clear enough that the decision to die is not freely chosen but is compelled by the pain.” This shows that the person is only thinking about how to get rid of their pain and not thinking rationally.

In conclusion, euthanasia is difficult to assess whether it in voluntary or not because it could be the pain compelling them to die and the person did not voluntarily choose to die. The argument by Neil Campbell is a stronger counter argument to Jean Davis’ article because Jean never wrote about pain and how it is a major factor in choosing to die. Also, many people can agree that euthanasia in not ethical under most circumstances. Personally, euthanasia is non-ethical because the person was not in the right-state of mind to make an irrational decision and so euthanasia was never voluntarily chosen.