Assisted Suicide: Broad Issues and Current Trends

Assisted Suicide Issues and Trends Paper
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Abstract
Assisted suicide is an increasingly controversial subject in healthcare practice. There are many debates concerning end-of-life practices globally, with assisted suicide receiving diverse considerations across jurisdictions. The broad issues impacting assisted suicide relate to the practice's proponents and opponents, including the current trends across different countries. Proponents of assisted suicide emphasize the need to respect patient autonomy, alleviate pain and suffering, and offer a dignified death. Opponents of assisted suicide argue that the practice undermines patient autonomy and right to life and can lead to suicide contagion in the communities. Although federal regulations indicate that assisted suicide harms patients' lives, there is a rising loosening of the laws to give room for the practice in different states. Some states in the United States of America have already legalized the practice. The report also established that assisted suicide remains illegal in the United Kingdom. There is a need for additional research to develop the broader issues affecting assisted suicide.
In the contemporary healthcare practice environment, medical professionals play different roles, including ending a patient's life upon request (euthanasia) and facilitating their death (assisted suicide). These practices emerged in the late 19th century as part of interventions to alleviate the suffering of individuals with terminal illnesses. Assisted suicide is a complex phenomenon that raises constant debates across different jurisdictions because it invokes religious, legal, human rights, ethical, and philosophical themes. As a result, there are proponents and opponents of assisted suicide, with each side demonstrating seemingly authentic reasons for their stance. The broad issues in assisted suicide relate to fundamental arguments supporting the practice: relief of suffering, respecting patient autonomy, and using it as the best available medical method to end one's life. Other issues relate to arguments against assisted suicide, including suicide contagion and the capacity to violate the right to life. The paper also considers current trends, such as legislation and recent developments on assisted suicide across different global jurisdictions.
Pro Arguments
Relief Suffering
At the core of the medical practice is the goal of relieving pain and suffering in the patient as a clinical manifestation of disease or illness. In the Western world, Hippocrates' ancient oath incorporates a pledge to use medical interventions to assist the sick but not to prescribe or administer harmful substances to patients even when asked to do so. On the contrary, proponents of assisted suicide suggest that administering lethal substances to relieve suffering is an act of compassion and humanity, especially when the patient faces imminent death and pain proves refractory (Dugdale et al., 2019). Some genuine arguments for assisted suicide are documented by patients, such as Brittany Maynard, who suffered from a terminal illness and decided to end her life at the right time.
Respect for Patient Autonomy
Bioethics is a discipline that gained tremendous influence in the late 20th century when patient-centered care gained prominence over physician paternalism. In their textbook Principles of Biomedical Ethics, philosophers James Childress and Tom Beauchamp delineated the four primary principles guiding ethical healthcare practice: autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, and justice. Autonomy has become a central concept guiding contemporary medical practice in the U.S. due to its emphasis on patient-centered care. Autonomy in medical contexts refers to the means via which a patient can dictate medical interventions to use or avoid based on their preferences or expectations. Patient autonomy proves a reliable justification for informed consent, primarily after the healthcare provider has explained the underlying risks and benefits of each treatment intervention or the decision to partake in health research (Dugdale et al., 2019). In healthcare contexts, autonomy implies that the patient decides which health interventions to forgo or elect. It is a rationale for informed consent as the patient chooses after evaluating the downsides and benefits of different treatment modalities. In this vein, similar logic is applied to assisted death because patients should be empowered to make decisions concerning their health across their lifespan, including the ability to control the circumstances surrounding their demise.
A Safe Medical Practice
Proponents laud assisted death as a safe health practice – physicians facilitate death in a dignified way that other suicide means cannot. It thus becomes a recommendable option amongst other care possibilities when an individual is dying. Although state regulations concerning assisted death vary, most argue for various safeguards to mitigate abuses as well as to offer some guidelines that some individuals will execute, albeit dangerously or even haphazardly. Safeguards entail requiring a patient to choose assisted death based on comprehensive information about all the available end-of-life alternatives. In this regard, two witnesses should authenticate the patient's decision to elect assisted suicide autonomously and that the patient made the decision without coercion and can take the lethal drug themselves (Dugdale et al., 2019).
Con Arguments
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