euthanasia.procon.orgShould Medical Aid in Dying Be Legal?

More IssuesFAQs Teachers’ Corner Euthanasia Last updated on: 12/19/2022 | Author: ProCon.org History of Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) Medical aid in dying (MAID) is also called medical assistance in dying, physician-assisted suicide (PAS), physician-assisted death/dying (PAD), and self-determination in dying. The New York State Bar Association defined MAID as when a terminally ill, mentally competent adult patient, who is likely to die within six months, takes prescribed medicines, which must be self-administered, to end suffering and achieve a peaceful death.” MAID differs from euthanasia, which is when a healthcare provider administers a fatal drug, and from passive euthanasia, which is when artificial life support is withheld or stopped (such as feeding tubes and ventilators). Euthanasia is illegal in the United States but legal in some countries , including Belgium, Canada, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Spain. Read more history… [ Editor’s Note: We do not recommend or refer specific physicians, counselors, organizations, or other experts on end-of-life issues. ] Pro & Con Arguments Pro 1 MAID allows terminally ill people to choose a good death.” The word euthanasia” comes from the Greek word euthanatos , which means easy death” or good death.” [ 14 ] In English, euthanasia” has meant a good death since Francis Bacon described it as after the fashion and semblance of a kindly & pleasant sleepe” in the early 17th century. The phrase good death” has been associated with medical aid in dying ever since. [ 14 ] While individual definitions of a good death” may vary, a literature review found 94% of reports about what makes for a good death placed preferences for dying process (94% of reports), pain-free status (81%), and emotional well-being (64%)” at the top of the lists from patients, family members, and healthcare providers. [ 15 ] Many opponents of MAID define the practice as suicide, and thus not a good death. However, the American Association of Suicidology asserted that suicide and physician aid in dying are conceptually, medically, and legally different phenomena.” [ 16 ] Anita Hannig, Associate Professor of anthropology at Brandeis University, also distinguishes MAID from suicide: Terminally ill patients who seek an assisted death aren’t suicidal. Absent a terminal prognosis, they have no independent desire to end their life…. Patients who pursue medical aid in dying are no longer looking at an open-ended life span either. To qualify for an assisted death in states with these laws they must already be on the verge of dying – that is, within six months of the end of their life. These patients don’t face a meaningful decision between living and dying, but between one kind of death and another.” [ 17 ] Moreover, because of the waiting periods enforced by MAID laws, the patients have had time to carefully consider their choices for medical care and their own moral or spiritual obligations. Patients who choose medical aid in dying are typically surrounded by family, friends, and other loved ones when they die in a peaceful and comfortable environment. The patients have had time to say goodbye to other people in their lives. [ 16 ] [ 18 ] Medical anthropologist Mara Buchbinder has amplified on the benefits of MAID, especially for patients facing a drawn-out physical and mental decline punctuated by incessant medical interventions and a painful and heavily sedated death: MAID renders not only the time of death but also the broader landscape of death open to human control. MAID allows terminally ill patients to choreograph their own deaths, deciding not only when but where and how and with whom. Part of the appeal is that one must go on living right up until the moment of death. It takes work to engage in all the planning; it keeps one vibrant and busy. There are people to call, papers to file, and scenes to set [turning]… dying into an active extension of life.” [ 18 ] Read More Pro 2 MAID is a matter of bodily autonomy, a right everyone should have. Autonomy is the state or condition of self-governance, or leading one’s life according to reasons, values, or desires that are authentically one’s own.” Bodily autonomy, in turn, is control over one’s physical being. [ 19 ] MAID laws are written to offer agency and autonomy at the end of life in lieu of suffering, indignity, and shame.” [ 20 ] We should protect the personal autonomy people should have to decide that they don’t want to continue living to the end of a condition from which they will die after many months, weeks, or days of suffering, both physically and existentially–that is, when there is no longer purpose in their lives,” according to lawyer Lamar W. Hawkins. [ 21 ] Our own [US] Supreme Court, nearly 30 years ago, found that we all have the right to decide what medical care we are willing to accept,” adds Hawkins. We should also have a right to decide what suffering we are willing to endure and receive medical assistance necessary to avoid the suffering we want to avoid. Our essential right to take our own lives when faced with unwanted suffering is undeniable–no state prohibits it. What we don’t yet have everywhere is the right to receive assistance in doing so, an omission that discriminates against the too feeble, the too ill, and the too disabled, who nevertheless know their own minds and deserve the assistance necessary to exercise that essential right.” [ 21 ] For many terminally ill patients who are interested in MAID and go through the process to qualify and obtain a prescription, just having the lethal medication on hand relieves anxieties and fears about not only their potentially excruciating deaths but the lives and good moments they have left. [ 22 ] Many find support from family, friends, and medical professionals to continue their lives for a while longer. In fact, many do not take the prescription medication and instead die from the terminal illness itself, but they die more peacefully having had the option of ending their lives and suffering on their own terms. [ 22 ] Read More Pro 3 MAID ensures thoughtful regulation of the practice. American death with dignity laws are based on Oregon’s 1994 law, which was the first such American law enacted. The laws all have stringent eligibility requirements” and safeguards that [d]ata and studies show… work as intended, protecting patients and preventing misuse.” The safeguards include but are not limited to: being an adult with a terminal illness and fewer than six months to live, mentally competent, and able to self-administer the drugs. Each state requires the patient to make several requests to several doctors in person with witnesses and waiting periods between requests. And the patient may stop the process at any time before taking the lethal medication. [ 3 ] [ 23 ] Healthcare providers are under no obligation to participate in MAID but, if they do, they have to stop the process for mental health evaluations if needed or if coercion is suspected. Each state also has strict reporting protocols. [ 3 ] [ 23 ] Even Catholic priests have recognized the need for regulated death without agreeing morally with MAID. And of the two possibilities, assisted suicide is the one [versus euthanasia] that most restricts abuses…. [So] it is a question of seeing which law can limit evil,” argues Father Renzo Pegoraro, Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy for Life. [ 24 ] Many consider medical aid in dying laws a slippery slope to the abuse of vulnerable groups. But as journalist George Will pointed out, Life is lived on a slippery slope: Taxation can become confiscation, police can become instruments of tyranny, laws can metastasize suffocatingly. However, taxation, police and laws are indispensable. The challenge is to minimize dangers that cannot be entirely eliminated from society…. MAID, enveloped in proper protocols, can and should be a dignity-enhancing response to especially harrowing rendezvous with the inevitable.” [ 25 ] Rather...