title: Alternatives to physician-assisted suicide.
abstract: Two alternatives to physician-assisted suicide are ethically supported and legally permitted by American law. They are proper pain management and the forgoing of life-sustaining treatment. Correct understanding of pain management in the context of the dying patient shows that it is always medically possible, and, assuming that the proper decision-maker agrees, it is always legally permitted to eliminate physical pain in an imminently dying patient. It is also ethically right and legal to withhold or withdrew life-sustaining treatment in many cases. These alternatives significantly reduce, though they do not eliminate, the perceived need for suicide and euthanasia. Neither euthanasia nor physician-assisted suicide should be made legal, although they may be morally right in cases in which adequate pain control is unavailable. Reasons for this conclusion are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Theology Department, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA 15201, USA.
authors.forename: D F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Kelly
mesh_terms: D001293:Attitude to Death; D005065:Euthanasia / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D028601:Euthanasia, Active; D033101:Euthanasia, Active, Voluntary; D006801:Humans; D007878:Legislation as Topic; D010146:Pain; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D017236:Suicide, Assisted / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D035761:Wedge Argument; D028761:Withholding Treatment