Importance of Dr. Kevorkian case for Medical Ethics :: Medical Ethics Assisted Suicide Essays

Importance of Dr. Kevorkian case for Medical Ethics The Dr. Kevorkian case is important for health check ethics, because it brings up the issues of physician-assisted suicide and physician-assisted death. Physician-assisted suicide is where the doctor is assisting the patient in suicide, tho the patient doually performs the act. Physician-assisted death, also known as euthanasia, is when the doctor does the act to bring about the patients death based on the patients request. This brings up the limitations of beneficence. Does a doctor have the in force(p) to end a patients life to relieve their woe? We can use the article of belief of double loading to analyze this case. there are four criteria for an act to be ethical according to the principle of double ensnare (Garrett et al., 2001)1) The action itself must good or virtuously indifferent.2) The person must intend only the good effect and non the full-grown effect.3) The bad e ffect cannot be the means to the good effect.4) there must be a proportionality between the good and bad effects Killing or assisting in suicide is not a morally indifferent act. Dr. Kevorkian says, My intent was only to relieve their suffering, an act that needs killed the person. He justified his acts, because most of his patients had Lou Gehrigs Disease and could not founder or care for themselves (Murphy, 1999). Although only the good effect was intended, the bad effect (death) was the means to the good effect. The proportionality between the good and bad effect must be analyzed for each specific case. Dr. Kevorkians acts violate at least two of the principles of double effect, so they are not ethically justified. Importance of Dr. Kevorkian case for Professional Standards A profession involves the undermentioned elements (Garrett et al., 2001)1) a dedication to a crabby way-of-life, supportive of a particular expertise2) a deep invol vement in activities important to the conk of society