Skip to content
  • About
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Book
  • Careers
  • Podcast
  • Recommended
  • Speaking
  • All
  • Physician
  • Practice
  • Policy
  • Finance
  • Conditions
  • .edu
  • Patient
  • Meds
  • Tech
  • Social
  • Video
    • All
    • Physician
    • Practice
    • Policy
    • Finance
    • Conditions
    • .edu
    • Patient
    • Meds
    • Tech
    • Social
    • Video
    • About
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • Book
    • Careers
    • Podcast
    • Recommended
    • Speaking

Physician assisted suicide is our moral indicator

Stephen Kamelgarn, MD
Physician
October 31, 2015
Share
Tweet
Share

On September 12, 2015, the California Legislature passed a controversial bill legalizing physician-assisted suicide. California would become the fifth state to allow doctors to prescribe lethal medication to terminally ill patients who request it, after Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana. During the debate over the passage of the bill, everybody weighed in: patient’s rights advocates, dying patients and their advocates, religious groups. The one group that I didn’t hear about was what the frontline physicians — those practitioners who will actually prescribe the treatment — had to say. This is my attempt to add that viewpoint.

Death is a major event (to understate the obvious) in the cycle of life, and the decision to die must be left up to the individual, his/her particular physiology, and close family members. We should be counselors, and comfort providers, not terminators. If physicians assist in suicide we will truly be “playing God,” and entering onto a slippery moral slope from which we may not recover.

Irrespective of one’s religious beliefs there seems to be a universal morality that governs our behavior with respect to our fellow humans. Variations of the 6th Commandment (Thou shalt not kill or murder) exist in virtually all traditions; not just the Judeo-Christian one we’re all so familiar with. There must be a reason that traditions as widely divergent as Tibetan Buddhism and American Evangelical Protestantism carry the same proscription. Obviously, such a widely banned practice must reflect some underlying universal morality; or a hardwiring of the human nervous system, if one wishes to be totally materialistic about it. Granted, with the widespread incidence of “holy” war and religious murder, the bans are honored more in the breach than in reality. But still, the proscriptions are there.

No physician wishes to watch a patient beg to die, or be in excruciating pain. I’m sure that all of us have felt that death would be a release for certain patients. However, once we become personally involved in promoting death, we begin to undermine the moral contract that exists between patients and physicians, thereby undercutting our abilities to provide care to the living. We cannot be both physician and executioner. It is impossible to assume both roles at once, and should we become purveyors of suicide, it ultimately lessens our abilities as physicians.

Death is not the enemy. Our real enemy is pain, suffering, and loss of dignity; it is imperative for each of us to expend whatever efforts it takes to alleviate the pain (both physical and emotional). I don’t mean to imply that every one of our patients be put on high-tech life support (existence support, in actuality). In fact, that course, more often than not, prolongs the suffering. Our job, when dealing with the terminally ill, is to provide as much pain relief, emotional support and comfort as humanly possible to ease our patients’ transition from life to death. We have no moral right to hasten that process.

How can we, as physicians, wear both the mantle of healing and executioner? For although we may be performing a compassionate act, we still are acting as executioner. What effect will this have upon us? Curing a condition and healing are not necessarily synonymous, and while, when dealing with the terminally ill, we may not cure them of their condition(s), we certainly may provide healing in the form of emotional and physical support and achieving “closure.” Ultimately, I feel, physician-assisted suicide will lessen our effectiveness as healers, and, perhaps, make us a bit jaded and coarsen our own characters, to our professional and personal detriment.

Often, we facilitate a much longed for death by prescribing various medications that patients will take in conscious overdose. Obviously, many of the drugs we prescribe for comfort and pain relief are lethal when taken to excess, and if a person deliberately overdoses on those medications, that is their prerogative. We are fully cognizant of what they are doing, and give, at least tacit approval to their actions. But prescribing drugs that a person may or may not take is a long step from actually pushing the plunger on a syringe loaded with lethal drugs.

The cardinal implicit assumption of our Western society is that of individuals being responsible, and ultimately answerable, for their own actions. Our entire society is predicated upon people having control of their lives, and, in fact, this particular argument of physician-assisted suicide is about people taking control of their own deaths. If a terminally ill person wishes to hasten his or her demise, that is his/her decision, and we shouldn’t necessarily stand in his/her way. However, if we act as agents providing death for our patients, we are divesting them of their final and greatest responsibility.

We can attempt to rationalize assisted suicide as a matter of compassion. No matter how compassionate we may think we are by performing assisted suicide, we are taking the first tentative steps on a path that leads us away from healing, and into a future where the loss of moral distinctions erases the humanity from our profession.

Stephen Kamelgarn is a family physician who blogs at Code Blue Health Crisis.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com

Prev

A heartfelt thank you to my patients

October 31, 2015 Kevin 2
…
Next

What a Muslim medical student thinks of Dr. Ben Carson's words

November 1, 2015 Kevin 66
…

Tagged as: Palliative Care

Post navigation

< Previous Post
A heartfelt thank you to my patients
Next Post >
What a Muslim medical student thinks of Dr. Ben Carson's words

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

More by Stephen Kamelgarn, MD

  • Natural drugs aren’t necessary safe. Don’t make that mistake.

    Stephen Kamelgarn, MD

Related Posts

  • A physician’s addiction to social media

    Amanda Xi, MD
  • Start with the students: Addressing the future of physician suicide

    Anonymous
  • Physician suicide: We need safe spaces to talk about it

    Ton La, Jr., MD, JD
  • Physician Suicide Awareness Day: Where are the patients? 

    Jennifer M. Sweeney
  • How a physician keynote can highlight your conference

    Kevin Pho, MD
  • Chasing numbers contributes to physician burnout

    DrizzleMD

More in Physician

  • The broken health care system doesn’t have to break you

    Jessie Mahoney, MD
  • How a $75 million jet brought down America’s boldest doctor

    Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA
  • The dreaded question: Do you have boys or girls?

    Pamela Adelstein, MD
  • When rock bottom is a turning point: Why the turmoil at HHS may be a blessing in disguise

    Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD
  • How grief transformed a psychiatrist’s approach to patient care

    Devina Maya Wadhwa, MD
  • Fear of other people’s opinions nearly killed me. Here’s what freed me.

    Jillian Rigert, MD, DMD
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • What’s driving medical students away from primary care?

      ​​Vineeth Amba, MPH, Archita Goyal, and Wayne Altman, MD | Education
    • Make cognitive testing as routine as a blood pressure check

      Joshua Baker and James Jackson, PsyD | Conditions
    • The hidden cost of delaying back surgery

      Gbolahan Okubadejo, MD | Conditions
    • The dreaded question: Do you have boys or girls?

      Pamela Adelstein, MD | Physician
    • Rethinking patient payments: Why billing is the new frontline of patient care [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • The broken health care system doesn’t have to break you

      Jessie Mahoney, MD | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • What’s driving medical students away from primary care?

      ​​Vineeth Amba, MPH, Archita Goyal, and Wayne Altman, MD | Education
    • The silent crisis hurting pain patients and their doctors

      Kayvan Haddadan, MD | Physician
    • What happened to real care in health care?

      Christopher H. Foster, PhD, MPA | Policy
    • Internal Medicine 2025: inspiration at the annual meeting

      American College of Physicians | Physician
    • The hidden bias in how we treat chronic pain

      Richard A. Lawhern, PhD | Meds
    • Residency as rehearsal: the new pediatric hospitalist fellowship requirement scam

      Anonymous | Physician
  • Recent Posts

    • Alzheimer’s and the family: Opening the conversation with children [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • AI in mental health: a new frontier for therapy and support

      Tim Rubin, PsyD | Conditions
    • What prostate cancer taught this physician about being a patient

      Francisco M. Torres, MD | Conditions
    • Why fearing AI is really about fearing ourselves

      Bhargav Raman, MD, MBA | Tech
    • The broken health care system doesn’t have to break you

      Jessie Mahoney, MD | Physician
    • Why great patient outcomes don’t protect female doctors from burnout [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.


Find jobs at
Careers by KevinMD.com

Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.

Learn more

View 10 Comments >

Founded in 2004 by Kevin Pho, MD, KevinMD.com is the web’s leading platform where physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients share their insight and tell their stories.

Social

  • Like on Facebook
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Connect on Linkedin
  • Subscribe on Youtube
  • Instagram

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • What’s driving medical students away from primary care?

      ​​Vineeth Amba, MPH, Archita Goyal, and Wayne Altman, MD | Education
    • Make cognitive testing as routine as a blood pressure check

      Joshua Baker and James Jackson, PsyD | Conditions
    • The hidden cost of delaying back surgery

      Gbolahan Okubadejo, MD | Conditions
    • The dreaded question: Do you have boys or girls?

      Pamela Adelstein, MD | Physician
    • Rethinking patient payments: Why billing is the new frontline of patient care [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • The broken health care system doesn’t have to break you

      Jessie Mahoney, MD | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • What’s driving medical students away from primary care?

      ​​Vineeth Amba, MPH, Archita Goyal, and Wayne Altman, MD | Education
    • The silent crisis hurting pain patients and their doctors

      Kayvan Haddadan, MD | Physician
    • What happened to real care in health care?

      Christopher H. Foster, PhD, MPA | Policy
    • Internal Medicine 2025: inspiration at the annual meeting

      American College of Physicians | Physician
    • The hidden bias in how we treat chronic pain

      Richard A. Lawhern, PhD | Meds
    • Residency as rehearsal: the new pediatric hospitalist fellowship requirement scam

      Anonymous | Physician
  • Recent Posts

    • Alzheimer’s and the family: Opening the conversation with children [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • AI in mental health: a new frontier for therapy and support

      Tim Rubin, PsyD | Conditions
    • What prostate cancer taught this physician about being a patient

      Francisco M. Torres, MD | Conditions
    • Why fearing AI is really about fearing ourselves

      Bhargav Raman, MD, MBA | Tech
    • The broken health care system doesn’t have to break you

      Jessie Mahoney, MD | Physician
    • Why great patient outcomes don’t protect female doctors from burnout [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast

MedPage Today Professional

An Everyday Health Property Medpage Today
  • Terms of Use | Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA Policy
All Content © KevinMD, LLC
Site by Outthink Group

Physician assisted suicide is our moral indicator
10 comments

Comments are moderated before they are published. Please read the comment policy.

Loading Comments...