2 answers
Danielle
Student
Wilmington, North Carolina
1
Question
Asked
555 views
What do doctors think about assisted suicide in regards to their patients ?
As a student in bioethics and as someone who would like to pursue medicine, I am always intrigued by the argument behind euthanasia and assisted suicide with patients. I am curious to know what the common consensus is among doctors.
Login to comment
2 answers
Brett Schlifstein
Anesthesiologist
15
Answers
Pittsboro, North Carolina
Updated
Brett’s Answer
Hi Danielle,
I see I am the first to respond to your question. I think that speaks to the controversy on this topic, and that there is no uniform consensus amongst physicians.
As physicians, we are trained to improve the health and well being of our patients. However, there comes a point where that is just not possible. In fact, our attempts to help the patient may prolong their pain and suffering. Quality of life has become an important factor in medical decision making, rather than solely prolonging life. Patients may choose to refuse medical treatment, such as CPR (DNR - do not resuscitate), or to only receive medications to make them feel better without treating the underlying disease (CMO - comfort measures only). There are physicians who specialize in palliative care who can be very helpful for these terminally ill patients. I'm no bioethics expert, but I believe these measures are all considered to be passive euthanasia.
Active euthanasia (assisted suicide) is very different, and has many other considerations. Is the patient truly terminally ill? How long is their life expectancy? What is our confidence on the answer to these questions? Are there family or friends with an ulterior motive influencing the patient? Is the patient competent to make this decision? If they are not, is it ok for someone else to make this decision?
I'm an anesthesiologist, so it would technically be very easy for me to take a patient's life in a comfortable manner - but I will never do it. In addition to it not being legal, there are a myriad of ethical issues. I have chosen to euthanize several pets, and I believe that it was the humane thing to do. And I have often wondered if we are more kind to our pets than humans when it comes to end of life issues. In order for assisted suicide to work, it would need to involve more than one specially trained physician, and this would need to be very carefully regulated, as this is a very slippery slope. All of these issues would need to be worked out before we start actively start taking lives.
It can be very easy to oversimplify many of these issues. When I met with estate attorney to make a will, she asked me a bunch of questions regarding what medical procedures I would want or not want if I could not make medical decisions for my own. I really couldn't answer these questions without context. Would I want to be intubated and ventilated? Probably, but not if I had an irreversible brain injury with little to no chance of having a meaningful recovery. Would I want a feeding tube , CPR, etc.? Once again, it depends. Bottom line, these are complicated questions, and I have just touched the tip of the iceberg with my response.
Hope that was helpful,
Brett Schlifstein, M.D.
Anesthesia Director
ECU Health Roanoke Chowan Hospital
I see I am the first to respond to your question. I think that speaks to the controversy on this topic, and that there is no uniform consensus amongst physicians.
As physicians, we are trained to improve the health and well being of our patients. However, there comes a point where that is just not possible. In fact, our attempts to help the patient may prolong their pain and suffering. Quality of life has become an important factor in medical decision making, rather than solely prolonging life. Patients may choose to refuse medical treatment, such as CPR (DNR - do not resuscitate), or to only receive medications to make them feel better without treating the underlying disease (CMO - comfort measures only). There are physicians who specialize in palliative care who can be very helpful for these terminally ill patients. I'm no bioethics expert, but I believe these measures are all considered to be passive euthanasia.
Active euthanasia (assisted suicide) is very different, and has many other considerations. Is the patient truly terminally ill? How long is their life expectancy? What is our confidence on the answer to these questions? Are there family or friends with an ulterior motive influencing the patient? Is the patient competent to make this decision? If they are not, is it ok for someone else to make this decision?
I'm an anesthesiologist, so it would technically be very easy for me to take a patient's life in a comfortable manner - but I will never do it. In addition to it not being legal, there are a myriad of ethical issues. I have chosen to euthanize several pets, and I believe that it was the humane thing to do. And I have often wondered if we are more kind to our pets than humans when it comes to end of life issues. In order for assisted suicide to work, it would need to involve more than one specially trained physician, and this would need to be very carefully regulated, as this is a very slippery slope. All of these issues would need to be worked out before we start actively start taking lives.
It can be very easy to oversimplify many of these issues. When I met with estate attorney to make a will, she asked me a bunch of questions regarding what medical procedures I would want or not want if I could not make medical decisions for my own. I really couldn't answer these questions without context. Would I want to be intubated and ventilated? Probably, but not if I had an irreversible brain injury with little to no chance of having a meaningful recovery. Would I want a feeding tube , CPR, etc.? Once again, it depends. Bottom line, these are complicated questions, and I have just touched the tip of the iceberg with my response.
Hope that was helpful,
Brett Schlifstein, M.D.
Anesthesia Director
ECU Health Roanoke Chowan Hospital
Parin Patel
OB/GYN
3
Answers
Newport News, Virginia
Updated
Parin’s Answer
That's a very unique question and probably varies person to person (physician to physician). Like all controversial topics, you won't find that an entire group of people agrees on this. I am grateful to have never been in a patient situation where this has come up. I have mixed feelings about it in that I can understand why some would prefer having control over their death, particularly when they have a medical condition that may alter their memories/behaviors/ability to care for themselves and live a life with any meaning. On the other hand, morally, I could not live within myself if I helped someone take their life, regardless of their reasons.