Author: Amy Sloan
Last saved by: Antony Ouma
Company: American Career College \ West Coast University

TERM PAPER OUTLINE: PHYSICIAN ASSISTED SUICIDE

Running head: TERM PAPER OUTLINE: PHYSICIAN ASSISTED SUICIDE

Term Paper Outline: Physician Assisted Outline
Student’s Name
Institutional; Affiliations

Topic: Physician Assisted Suicide
I.	Introduction
The issue of physician assisted suicide has been in existence for quite some time. It began with the modernization of healthcare and the adoption of the policies that advocated for the respect of the patient wishes. In fact, Physician assisted suicide thrives on the sense that a patient’s wishes and requests have to be respected by both heath care providers and family members. Physician assisted suicide is defined as the suicide or death with the aid of a doctor through direct supply of potential lethal medication, dosage or drugs to a patient at his or her request, or indirect prescription or counselling about lethal drugs that can be taken at any time by the requester to end his or her life at will (Sulmasy et al., 2018). Physician assisted suicide is therefore simply the ending of a patient’s life with the help of a doctor as requested by the patient himself or herself. Even though the physician assisted suicide is done as a fulfilment to the patient’s wishes and request, it raises a lot of ethical implications. Furthermore, heath provision policies regarding this ethical issue are facing challenges due to the fact that many people, both in the health sector and outside the health sector hold varying views and opinions regarding physician assisted suicide. This paper, therefore, explain the technical aspects of the issue and explore the ethical issues regarding physician assisted suicide by showing the arguments in support as well as against it and it will culminate in giving a personal opinion regarding the issue.
II.	Body Paragraph 1 – Technical aspects of physician assisted suicide
a.	Topic Sentence: Physician assisted suicide is used to technically end the life of the requesting patient in cases where the physician sees that the patient has no hope and the health condition of the patient is beyond medical intervention.
i.	Supporting detail 1: Some patients lose hope of living due to their health conditions and despite the counseling efforts of family members and health care providers, the patients may just prefer to end their lives to and this is done with the help of doctors (Cohen-Almagor, 2015).
ii.	Supporting detail 2: Sometimes the physician attending to the patient might see the need to assist the patient to commit suicide in situations where the patient’s lack of hope in life prohibits his or her healing process.
iii.	Supporting detail 3: Some health conditions such as cancer put the patients through unbearable pain and the though that such diseases have no cure presents leads patients to request doctors to prescribe to them lethal drugs to end their lives (Battin, Rhodes & Silvers, 2015).
III.	Body Paragraph 2 – Description of public policy debates surrounding Physician assisted suicide
a.	Transition: Despite the existence of the technical justifications for physician assisted suicide, several ethical issues continue to be raised regarding the issue.
b.	Topic Sentence: The public policy debates that surround the issue of physician assisted suicide surround the arguments of ethics in health care provision and the push to respect the requests and wishes of patients by both family members and family health care providers such as nurses and doctors (Battin, Rhodes & Silvers, 2015).
i.	Supporting detail 1: Physician assisted suicide spring from the effort to respect the wishes of the patients in the health sector (Cohen-Almagor, 2015).
ii.	Supporting detail 2: Ethics of health care provision require health care providers to be helpful to patients and come to their aid in all circumstances including the need to end life
iii.	Supporting detail 3: Public policy regarding physician assisted suicide however advocates for legal considerations and exhaustion of all other alternatives before opting for the physician assisted suicide.
IV.	Body Paragraph 3 -Arguments supporting physician assisted suicide
a.	Transition: The public policy dilemma regarding physician assisted suicide has given rise to both varied arguments regarding the issue of physician assisted suicide.
b.	Topic Sentence: Those in support of physician assisted suicide argue that it is ethical because it is part of respecting the wishes of the patient and helps to save patients from pains and suffering.
i.	Supporting detail 1: Accepting to end life of the requesting patient is part of respecting the wishes of the patient which is one of the requirements that health care providers such as doctors are supposed to follow (Battin, Rhodes & Silvers, 2015)
ii.	Supporting detail 2: Physician assisted suicide saves patients from prolonged suffering in cases of incurable diseases such as cancerous diseases (Sprung et al., 2018).
iii.	Supporting detail 3: Physician assisted suicide helps the family of the patient to save money which would have been wasted on a dying patient (Cohen-Almagor, 2015).
V.	Body Paragraph 4 – Arguments against physician assisted suicide
a.	Transition: On the other hand, there are those, both within the health sector and outside the health sector, who think that physician assisted suicide is unethical and should not be done by doctors.
b.	Topic Sentence: Physician assisted suicide is unjustified and unethical because it breaches the code of conduct for health providers and violets the will of God to protect human life at all times
i.	Supporting detail 1: Doctors are supposed to save life and not end it and therefore helping patients to end their lives is breaching the code of ethics for health care providers (Sprung et al., 2018)
ii.	Supporting detail 2: Helping a patient to end his or her life through prescription of lethal drugs is against the will of God who requires all people to protect human life at all times (Sulmasy et al., 2017).
iii.	Supporting detail 3: Physician assisted suicided raises concerns on how the very doctors who are supposed to save live turn to destroy the very life through prescribing lethal drugs to patients to end their lives at will (Jaret, 2016).
VI.	Opinion and Conclusion
a.	Transition: From the above arguments it is clear that varied opinions exist regarding the issue of physician assisted suicide. One side seems to condemn it on grounds that it is unethical and against the will of God while the other supports it saying that it is part of respecting the wishes of the patients and saving them from pain and suffering.
b.	Statement of Opinion: In my opinion, I believe that physician assisted suicide is unethical and ungodly. Doctors, through out their training and healthcare provision practice are supposed to save human using their knowledge and technical know-how in the field of medicine. Therefore, they should not at any one point deviate from their course to support destruction of life though physician assisted suicide, no matter the case and situation. It is unethical to prescribe lethal medication to a patient with an aim of helping them to end their lives. Furthermore, I disagree with the argument that physician assisted suicide helps the family members to save money because even though the requesting patient is saved from pain, the family members remain with a lot of grief and pain in their hearts for losing their loved one and this grief can last for years. In conclusion, therefore, despite the arguments that support physician assisted suicide, the fact remains that the ethical implications and questions that arise from it are enormous to ignore. It makes no sense for doctors who are supposed to save life to decide to destroy the very life through physician assisted suicide. This is a vice that should be discouraged and prohibited at all costs.

References
Battin, M. P., Rhodes, R., & Silvers, A. (2015). Physician assisted suicide: expanding the debate. Routledge.
Cohen-Almagor, R. (2015). An argument for physician-assisted suicide and against euthanasia. Ethics, Medicine and Public Health, 1(4), 431-441. doi: 10.1016/j.jemep.2015.10.011
Jaret, P. (2016). Is Physician-Assisted Suicide Ethical?. Accessed 24^th April 2019 from http://www.berkeleywellness.com/healthy-community/health-care-policy/article/physician-assisted-suicide-ethical
Sprung, C. L., Somerville, M. A., Radbruch, L., Collet, N. S., Duttge, G., Piva, J. P., ... & Ely, E. W. (2018). Physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia: emerging issues from a global perspective. Journal of palliative care, 33(4), 197-203.
Sulmasy, D. P., Finlay, I., Fitzgerald, F., Foley, K., Payne, R., & Siegler, M. (2018). Physician-assisted suicide: why neutrality by organized medicine is neither neutral nor appropriate. Journal of general internal medicine, 33(8), 1394-1399.
Sulmasy, L. S., & Mueller, P. S. (2017). Ethics and the legalization of physician-assisted suicide: an American College of Physicians position paper. Annals of internal medicine, 167(8), 576-578.