Work

In Defense of “Physician-Assisted Suicide”: Toward (and Back to) a Transparent, Destigmatizing Debate

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Many bioethicists have recently shifted from using "physician-assisted suicide" (PAS) to "medical aid-in-dying" (MAID) to refer to the act of voluntarily hastening one's death with the assistance of a medical provider. This shift was made to obscure the practice's connection to "suicide." However, as the charge of "suicide" is fundamental to arguments against the practice, "MAID" can only be used by its proponents. The result has been the fragmentation of the bioethical debate. By highlighting the role of human agency-as opposed to natural processes-in causing death, the term "PAS" makes it easier both to perceive potential risks to vulnerable populations and to affirm suicide as a potentially autonomous choice. As such, "PAS" thus more transparently expresses the arguments of both supporters and opponents of the "right to die," while avoiding the unnecessary stigmatization of suicide and suicidal people which is a result of the usage of "MAID."

Source: Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics

DOI: 10.1017/s0963180124000434

Authors: Brandy M. Fox, Harold Braswell

Institutions: Stanford University, Saint Louis University

Language: English

Topic: Ethics and bioethics in healthcare

Subfield: Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,450