Physician Assisted Suicide Case Study

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The right to die was legalized in 1997 by Oregon's Death with Dignity Act (Smith, Goy & Ganzini, 2011). The right to die or physician-assisted suicide has an impact on the ethics of end-of-life medical patients, vulnerable patients, medical professionals, and society (Snyder, 2001). This policy does change the standards that are set in medical care. Physician-assisted suicide has been prohibited by the medical code ethics because it does not adhere to the concept of beneficence and nonmaleficence (Snyder, 2001). This policy contradicts the role of physicians to protect, provide care and treat patients. The right to die policy is based on physicians providing the means for patients to die with dignity. According to Burnier and Gandsman (2014),