Physician Assisted Suicide And The Hippocratic Oath

Physician assisted suicide or PAS is a topic that has long been debated throughout history dating back as far as the ancient Greeks and Romans. During that time, physician assisted suicide was an accepted and tolerated practice by giving patients poison to help them die rather than have them suffer a long and painful death. Even though it went against the Hippocratic Oath which in part states â€Å"I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect† (Medicinenet.com, 2015), very few ancient Roman and Greek physicians followed the Hippocratic Oath faithfully. (ProCon.org, 2013). It wasn’t until the beginning of the 12th century and the rise of Christianity that physician assisted suicide viewpoints changed because of the religious belief that life is a gift from God and that no one had the right to take a life. Consequently, the Hippocratic Oath was taken seriously and faithfully followed by physician thus sparking the debate for legal assisted suicide for centuries to come. There are various terms used for this topic area so to clear up any misunderstanding of the meanings, I will give the definitions of those terms. First, the term Euthanasia is Greek for â€Å"good death† and â€Å"is the act or practice of ending the life of a person either by lethal injection or the suspension of medical treatment.† (Legal-Dictionary) Under the big umbrella term of euthanasia there are the following terms: 1) â€Å"Voluntary Euthanasia is theShow MoreRelatedThe Legal And Ethical Issues Involving Physician Assisted Suicide1134 Words   |  5 Pageswhat conditions is physician assisted suicide morally acceptable, is the question at hand and did these states make the right decision on such a slippery slope debate. 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