Does compassion include euthanasia? Physicians' roles in caring for the terminally ill preclude the use of euthanasia.

Abstract

As technological advances continue to allow physicians to prolong dying patients' lives, healthcare providers face many issues surrounding physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia. When a physician performs euthanasia or assists in suicide, he or she is killing the patient. The action can in no way be interpreted as allowing an eventually inevitable death to occur earlier rather than later. The physician is culpable. Physicians play three important roles when caring for terminally ill patients: adviser, friend, and priest. The risks inherent in each of these could create an illusion that performing euthanasia and assisting in suicide are humane and logical options. Finally, physicians should not miss opportunities for grace when caring for dying patients. When physicians convey the diagnosis, when patients express the desire to control the timing of the death, and when patients are feeling sadness and anger, physicians must rise to the occasion to act as friend and minister and to introduce grace and healing to the dying.