Assess Death with Dignity laws

This week, you looked at the provider and patient rights. The assignment this week gives you a chance to look at a state law that provides the right for patients to die with dignity and compare the patient’s right with the ethical duty of physicians set forth in the AMA’s Code of Ethics.

You will write an essay that compares and contrasts the law and Code of Ethics as it applies to your state. Incorporate the following into your essay:

1. Referring directly to the law, provide verbiage for what a provider is or is not allowed to do.
2. What requirements must be present for a patient asking for death-hastening medication?
3. Describe what the AMA’s Code of Ethic’s stance is on these procedures, including any additional opinions published by the AMA.
4. Explain the challenging ethical decision-making process a provider must go through in this case.
5. How might this situation be resolved for a legal and ethical resolution?

Length: 3-4 pages, not including title page

References: The AMA Code Ethics.

Answer preview

Society has long debated the question of whether an individual should be allowed to decide when to end his/her life, especially when they are ailing from a terminal disease. In 1994, votes in Oregon passed the Death with Dignity Act, allowing mentally competent, terminally ill patients to obtain prescriptions from a physician for drugs to end their lives. This was the first death with dignity state in the country and was roundly criticized. In the end, the Act stood after the Supreme Court validated it. This act is at odds with the AMA Code of Ethics for medical practitioners, which declares that it is unethical for a physician to take part in physician-assisted suicide (American Medical Association, 2001). The Code points out that the primary concern of the physician is healing, not killing

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