Preservation of life with limits can be defined as the responsibility of healthcare providers to attempt to save a patient’s life through all means but making sure not to deny their right to treatment refusal. The healthcare provider can preserve the patient’s life if the patient is willing and not beyond help. Every patient has the right to informed consent and self-determination. Preserving life is expensive and only a few patients can afford it. Even though most families are not bothered by the cost of healthcare while the patient is still alive, terminally ill patients want a peaceful death without leaving their families with financial burdens. Those who have accepted their death are not able to relieve their families of the financial debt of the piling up medical bills. However, the option of physician aided suicide could resolve this.
Euthanasia or assisted suicide is the process where a physician prescribes lethal medication to cause death (Goligher et al., 2017). Proponents argue that euthanasia should be legal so that competent terminally ill persons can be afforded the right to end their pain and suffering, lower the healthcare cost on their families and die with dignity in line with palliative care where emphasis is on active, creative and compassionate care for the dying. Opposers argue that euthanasia does not respect the sanctity of life, lacks regulation, discourages the search for new procedures and medication and pressures vulnerable people to end their lives. Assisted death is still a controversial moral topic with legal, ethical, religious, political and clinical considerations and consequences. The lack of agreement amongst experts and advances in palliative care and life-lengthening treatments has made the issue even more complex, resulting in the need for amending the current laws.

References

Goligher, E., Ely, E., Sulmasy, D., Bakker, J., Raphael, J., & Volandes, A. et al. (2017). Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in the ICU. Critical Care Medicine, 45(2), 149-155. https://doi.org/10.1097/ccm.0000000000001818