In recent news, the conversation about healthcare has become a major topic. One of the issues in the spotlight is doctor-assisted suicide. Assisted suicide is the doctor prescribing a pill that the patient takes to induce death. Usually, they are expected to die within the next six months. What kind of world do we live in where people believe it is ethically right to kill someone? Society wonders why doctors have started to care less about their patients. It's because things like this go strictly against what doctors are supposed to do; heal the sick and help improve the health of patients. Physician-assisted suicide should remain illegal because it is contrary to the Hippocratic Oath, corrupts the practice of medicine, contaminates our culture, and is immoral because it takes life. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Physician-assisted suicide (PAS) should not become legal because it is against the Hippocratic Oath that doctors swear when they graduate from medical school. Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine, founded the Hippocratic Oath thousands of years ago. The reason doctors still take this oath is because it is the ideal conduct for a doctor, even in modern society. It is an oath that states that they will practice medicine fairly and ethically. However, doctors are starting to move away from following this vote. For example, the oath states, “I will not give a woman an abortive remedy,” but of course some doctors perform abortions (Tyson). The Hippocratic Oath also states, “I will not give a deadly drug to anyone who asks for it, nor will I make any suggestion to that effect” (Tyson). Today people argue that physician-assisted suicide should be legal even if it violates the oath. Violating the Hippocratic Oath is wrong because it defines what a doctor should and should not do. This oath is a guide to being a good doctor; by not following it doctors not only go against the ethics of a doctor but also become a bad doctor. If doctors violate this oath, why bother taking it? Louis Lasagna, academic dean of Tufts University School of Medicine, is concerned about the archaic themes of the Hippocratic Oath. Lasagna has also released a new version that some believe goes against the themes of the original. There are more things right than wrong in the original version. Also, take into consideration that the oath was developed thousands of years ago. There are things that have changed but the purpose of the oath is to help, protect and preserve life. Doctor-assisted suicide not only harms the patient, but also goes further and kills the patient. By allowing physician-assisted suicide to become legal in the United States, you are contributing to the corruption of medicine. According to the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, medicine has already started to become corrupted. Chattopadhyay said “potential institutionalized corruption” has become a problem in medicine. It is when doctors are asked to admit a fixed number of patients even if they are not needed. This shows that the patients are there and therefore the hospital makes money. From this, it can be deduced that patients are treated in hospitals rather than being cured because curing would mean that the patients would not return. This would result in the hospital and doctors not making any money. Doctor-assisted suicide directly adds to the corruption of medicine because the tools that should be used for healing are now being used to kill. Besides that, some doctors abuse thisoption. In Oregon, where it is legal, "a patient was told by his doctor, 'you have ALS [Lou Gehrig's disease]... it's terrible... you should consider PAS.' The patient was devastated” (Physician-assisted suicide). Doctors can easily persuade a patient to want doctor-assisted suicide, which is terrible. Instead of letting the patient decide for himself, he may feel guilty about it. People should “demand that doctors learn how to effectively eliminate pain, not effectively kill patients” since they are healers (doctor-assisted suicide). American culture has been tainted due to doctors not putting enough effort into caring for their patients. Doctor-assisted suicide allows for a path that can be taken by those who wish to end the course of treatment early. Creating the ability to die on command could eliminate fighting on the part of those who might otherwise have survived. If the patient suffers from depression due to the perceived lack of effectiveness, he or she may choose to stop treatment prematurely. For example, a cancer patient may observe some of the negative side effects of chemotherapy and choose PAS before treatment is completed. Because of the radical physical effects of the treatment, they may have a negative outlook and choose PAS because they believe their life is no longer worth living. The Family Research Council offers words of encouragement when it states that “every life is a promise” and that “there is no life that is not worth living” (Saunders and Fragoso). Proponents of physician-assisted suicide (PAS) like to argue that they do it because they want to preserve quality of life. Pope John Paul II spoke about medically assisted suicide when he stated that it "always seriously exploits the suffering and the desperate, extinguishing life in the name of the same 'quality of life'". Supporters against the legalization of physician-assisted suicide point out that it is immoral and against their religion due to the commandments prohibiting suicide. Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher, expressed it simply as “suicide is not abominable because God forbids it; God forbids it because it is abominable.” The United States has many different religions, covering many different ethical and moral codes. One thing that most of these religions have in common is an aversion to suicide. This large population with a strong moral compass drives the commitment to preserving life. PAS supporters argue that the dialogue should take place between the doctor and the patient, not between the government. Although the government should be involved in some sort of regulation to make sure it is implemented safely across the United States. However, this would require a majority of the nation to vote in favor of PAS. However, the people actually involved in this process should have a say. Doctors have their own code of ethics. Since most doctors are pro-life, this makes them against physician assistant suicide. The relationship between doctor and patient is one of the strongest partnerships in the professional world. The relationship is vital to the effectiveness of treatment because having a poor relationship between doctor and patient can lead to mistrust. If there is a lack of trust between the two, the doctor will not be able to treat the patient accurately and the patient will never tell the doctor what is really wrong. One thing that doctor-assisted suicide will do is ruin this doctor-patient relationship. It does this by making it easy for both doctor and patient to give up hope. Sometimes doctors do what is easiest, but that doesn't mean it is.