Question

• Should the physician (or any person) assisting a suicide victim be prosecuted?
• Why or Why not?

Answer 1

It depends on the scenario ,like if it was under voluntary euthanasia and after taking consent then it's fine ,physician should not be prosecuted. If it was not under consent and voluntary euthanasia then this act is illegal and hence physician should be prosecuted.

For example :-

The patient was in great pain and there were no alternative therapeutic options.

The patient also made repeated requests to die.

Dr Cox injected the patient with potassium chloride, but the patient survived.

He was subsequently convicted of attempted murder.

The doctrine of double effect was not applied in this case bc the potassium chloride would not have had pain killing effects, so he was not trying to ease the pain of the patient, he was intending to euthanise the patient.

Thus, Dr Cox could not appeal to the doctrine of double effect.

Had he injected the patient with a lethal dose of morphine, he could have argued that he foresaw the patient's death but did not intend it; rather he just intended to ease the patient's pain.