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Physician-Assisted Suicide: Was Dr. Jack Kevorkian's Action in Euthanizing His Patients Ethically Correct?

Essay by   •  March 30, 2011  •  Research Paper  •  628 Words (3 Pages)  •  1,272 Views

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Physician-Assisted Suicide: Was Dr. Jack Kevorkian's action in euthanizing his patients ethically correct?

Dr. Jack Kevorkian's actions in euthanization have been in the media's interest to portray him as both good and evil. Although one may think that euthanization depends on the solemnity of the issue or perhaps, are highly against the subjection of assisted-suicide; Dr. Kevorkian has walked the boundaries of law and alleged crime that has got him in almost a decade in jail. The ethical issue, here, that is very debatable is physical-assisted suicide. Here are some facts: Dr. Kevorkian is also referred to as Dr. Death in which he received by taking photographs of dying patients' pupils and noted that they turned invisible. He mentioned that this was to help doctors in distinguishing a death from a coma (www.trinity.edu, 1). His version of euthanasia was rejected by the Hemlock Society, a foundation to assist dying patients who are incompetent and terminally ill , to being susceptible for abuse. He has used several suicide contraptions, mercitrons, which could kill a patient in seconds with a push of a button. Dr. Jack finally crossed the boundaries of passive euthanasia and active euthanasia when he gave his patient a lethal injection and admitted committing murder.

At this point, the indication of the principality of avoiding undesirable exceptions would be necessary. Were Dr. Kevorkian's actions in euthanizing his patients lawfully or ethically correct? Dr. Kevorkian did not take precautionary advances to assist his patients even though they might not have any sickness. Thus, I state my qualifier, I feel compelled to think that Dr. Kevorkian's actions were ethically reprehensible due to his crude interests in scientific necromancy (pathology) and disrespect to the gift of life.

There are many contradictions to Dr. Kevorkian's own made rules. Among them, Dr. Kevorkian said that it was always necessary to bring in a psychiatrist because a person's "mental state is of paramount importance". In 19 cases, Dr. Kevorkian did not contract psychiatrist in which five of the patients had a history of depression. In addition, Dr. Kevorkian says that it is always necessary to contact a pain specialist or other medical experts when the patient is dealing with pain at all. In 17 cases in which patients had a complaint of pain, he failed to contact a pain specialist (www.trinity.edu, 3). This guarantees that Dr. Kevorkian did not perform in a professional manner, in which confirms that he didn't have the correct medicinal knowledge

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