3 Offering assisted suicide can only confirm and strengthen that feeling. Yet in Oregon, almost none of the patients receiving lethal drugs are evaluated to assess whether their wish for death arises from treatable depression-and over half say they requested the drugs partly because they feel they are becoming a "burden" on others. Consider that about half of patients who had requested assisted suicide under the Oregon law in its first three years changed their minds when the doctor provided palliative care. Assisted suicide alleviates none of these problems, but gives in to them. Addressing psychological, emotional, and spiritual problems is essential to palliative care. Patients facing serious illness may feel hopeless and depressed, as though their lives have lost meaning. Palliative care also addresses symptoms beyond physical pain, in ways that go beyond medication. Patients need to be able to trust their doctors to always care for their lives and never deliberately cause death. Medical organizations like the American Medical Association and the American College of Physicians oppose doctor-assisted suicide, in part because it destroys this essential distinction between intended and unintended effects of treatment. (Interestingly, there is no record that any patient accidentally surviving the overdose has ever tried it again. The doctor prescribes an intentionally lethal overdose, with instructions on how to use the pills to cause death. As risk cannot always be eliminated, modern medicine would be impossible without this "principle of double effect." The key is that no one involved intends the bad effects, especially the bad effect of killing the patient.Īssisted suicide, by contrast, directly intends the patient's death, which is never morally permissible. In such cases, the doctor and patient must assess the good they intend and proceed only if this good outweighs the unintended adverse effects. For example, barbiturates may be used in rare instances to sedate an agitated patient in the final stage of dying if other pain control methods are inadequate, though this poses some risk of shortening life. While pain medication is generally safe under medical supervision, it may have side-effects. The Importance of Intent Assisted suicide is radically different from end-of-life care and the practice of palliative care.īesides having opposite results, these two approaches express different intentions. The patient then intentionally swallows a massive overdose of barbiturates to cause unconsciousness and death. Where it has been legalized, doctors can prescribe a lethal overdose of pills to patients whom they think will die within six months, so they can kill themselves.
Patients can have their pain well-controlled without risk to life, and generally stay alert as well.Īssisted suicide is very different. When properly prescribed for the pain of serious illness, powerful pain medications like morphine and other opioids are safe and effective.
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