The Importance Of Physician Assisted Suicide

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To ensure their quality of life, controlling pain in terminally ill patients is an important part of end of life care. However, pain cannot always be controlled, and a patient may be in unbearable pain in the time leading up to the patient’s inevitable death. The practice of a doctor prescribing and optionally administering a fatal dosage of a drug, or physician-assisted suicide (PAS) alleviates pain that cannot be controlled by any other medication. Peter Saul, an intensive care specialist said in his TED Talk Let’s Talk About Dying, “At least six out of 10… people… will die in… the dwindling of capacity with increasing frailty… and the last few years, or the last year of your life is spent with a great deal of disability, unfortunately” (Saul).