"Assisted Suicide Is a Valid Medical Decision" by Alois Geiger. The Right To Die. Jennifer Dorman, Ed. At Issue Series. Greenhaven Press, 2010. Alois Geiger, "Why I Prescribe Drugs for Suicide," Times Online, October 24, 2008. Copyright © 2008 Times Newspapers Ltd. Reproduced by permission.
The position of this text is biased toward physician assisted suicides being a good and valid reason for euthanasia. The directed audience is toward people who agree that euthanasia is something that is not morally or ethically wrong. There are many different ideas to this short text, one being the main subject for my essay Euthanasia and the Hippocratic Oath. Alois Gieger believes that the oath is "largely out of date" and that doctors today do not need to make this oath becuase it would forbid them from the most minor of surgeries such as the removal of a bladderstone. He also talks about how it would forbid doctors from performing abortions as well. Another main point he makes is when it is reasonable and acceptable for physicians to assist in a patients suicide. He positions himself as a person helping someone that cannot find help elsewhere from a phyciatric standpoint or someone whose life is ending. He says that it is his obligation to help his patients in any way that he can. In response to this text I learned that doctors and physicians who agree that assisted suicide is a valid way to end a life believe that they are in no way breaking any morals of their own because it is for the well being of their patients. Geiger asks the reader many questions in this short text to make the reader reflect on the subject themselves and think what would they have him do. In no way did this alter my viewpoint on the subject. In fact I found it harder to understand because instead of giving his stance on the issue he was asking the reader questions and never truly explaining the situation except for in short one scentences. This specific source will be useful because it is directly from a physician that believes euthanasia is a legitimate way to end a life. I will be able to use it to show the perspective of a first hand physicans viewpoints through this article.
"Physicians Should Not Be Legally Permitted to Assist in Suicide" by Leon R. Kass and Nelson Lund. Euthanasia. James D. Torr, Ed. Opposing Viewpoints® Series. Greenhaven Press, 2000. Excerpted from Leon R. Kass and Nelson Lund, "Courting Death: Assisted Suicide, Doctors, and the Law," Commentary, December 1996. Reprinted by permission; all rights reserved.
The overall position of this article is that euthanasia is in violation of the hippocratic oath. The authors' do not particularly seem biased because the show both sides on some of the main topic's though it is written for those readers who would agree with their views. This article sometimes focuses on the legality of the issue of euthanasia, but holds good intel on the issue in general and how it relates to the Hippocratic oath and the interpretation some physicians see it as today. The main ideas of the text are the morallity of the subject and how euthanasia in many ways goes against what physicians and doctors are taught. The authors' distinguish the differences of a patient refusing help and asking help to end their lives. Those patients that refuse help are in accordance with the oath while those that ask for help are in defiance. The main conclusions reached through this article are that though many physicians are tempted to assist in their patients suicide it is not a reason to change a traditional rule. In response to this article I learned a valuable viewpoint on the issue from a more legal standpoint and not from a "completely against"standpoint, which I was expecting. This article does a very good job of going in depth to the topic and the authors' particular view on the subject of euthanasia. This will be useful in many ways, because it gives background information on the Hippocratic Oath and a specific viewpoint on why euthanasia is in violation of the oath. It also gives examples from today's society that some people view as acceptable, but when looked at with the history of the subject of euthanasia are in fact not what they seem to be.
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