Should Physician-Assisted Suicide be Legalized? A Challenge for the 21 st Century

Abstract

The author discusses the sociological, psychological and medical factors at the basis of physician-assisted suicide (PAS). The patient's intolerable pain and suffering are viewed as motives for PAS, together with the physician's possible loss of a sense of professional omnipotence. Both the patient and the assisting doctor are thought to be essentially victims of a technological era. A utilitarian approach to human despair is seen as a short-sighted solution to a tragic problem. The author suggests a more humane approach to the dying patient, and warns against the possibility of falling onto the so-called slippery slope of active euthanasia in the eventuality of the legalization of the practice of physician assisted suicide.