Two Annotated Ethics Sources

Is assisted suicide ethical for the terminally ill?

Lavi, Shai. “How Dying Became a ‘Life Crisis.’” Daedalus 137 (2008): 57. SIRS Researcher. SIRS Knowledge Source. Edina High School. 6 Dec. 2008 .

The author is a teacher at Tel Aviv University where he teaches law and sociology. He wrote a book on euthanasia that won the 2006 Distinguished Book Award from the American Sociological Association. This article appeared in Daedalus, a journal published by MIT and the official journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He writes about the progression of the medical treatment of death over time and explores the reason for the change in the treatment of death. Lavi writes that death and the pain and way in which people die has not changed over time; only people’s desire for control over death has changed. In the past doctors would even abandon patients when they thought the patients were beyond help. Now, people seek to have lots of control over medical practices as technology advances. Euthanasia comes from people seeking control over their deaths. The author comes to question what role a doctor has in treating the patient and if the doctor’s role is to treat the patient as the patient wishes or to give the patient constant hope.

Welch, William M. “Debate Rages in Calif. Over Physician-Assisted Suicide.” USA Today 10 Apr. 2007:n.p. SIRS Researcher. SIRS Knowledge Source. Edina High School. 6 Dec. 2008 .

Welch is a reporter for USA Today. This article questions doctors’ involvement in assisted suicides, but not as much as some of the others. He not only reports on the recent event of debating about assisted suicide in California, but also on the background of both sides of the debate. He writes that Oregon is the only state to allow assisted suicide. Oregon only allows assisted suicide for people with less than six months to live. One concern he suggests is that people will kill themselves for reasons other than pain. People will kill themselves because they are depressed and it is hard to tell what the reason for assisted suicide is. He also says assisted suicide is questionable because of doctors’ ethics. It is against doctors’ ethics and some believe it is overall unethical for doctors to prescribe medicine for the sole purpose of killing a patient.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/july-dec98/suicide_11-24.html

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/july-dec99/suicide_10-27.html

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/forum/october99/assisted_suicide3.html