Beyond Life: Managing Your Right to Die | Dr. Allan Saxe | TEDxPlano
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- Опубликовано: 23 авг 2024
- Dr. Allan Saxe speaks about the controversial and sensitive issue of choosing assisted suicide, aka death with dignity, euthanasia and the right to die.
Dr. Saxe is an Associate Professor of Political Science at University of Texas at Arlington and a 2014 recipient of the University of Texas System Board of Regents Teaching Award. He holds a Ph.D. in political science at the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Saxe would like to have these words inscribed on his tombstone: “He did not ask to come to this planet.”
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at ted.com/tedx
No one should be forced to suffer. It’s totally inhumane. It would be considered cruel to keep a sick animal alive. They’re put to death peacefully. Why can’t human beings be treated with the same compassion.
Why does someone have to have a terminal illness? Suffering is suffering. If someone wants to go, why not allow that person the resources to do it peacefully and painlessly?
YES, David! Thank you!
Because they would just be ruining the delusional reality for everyone else, apparently
Can't even bring it up unless you have a terminal disease or psyche comes! I have severe pain, I'm alone, and I'm suffering! I'm ready!
You're so right !!!!
Omg yes!
If I don’t interfere with your choice to live, you should not be able to interfere in my right to die. And I should be able to do so, regardless of having a terminal illness or not, pain free and with dignity.
"I should be able to do so, regardless of having a terminal illness or not, pain free and with dignity." THIS!
A lot of people don't suffer. A lot of people enjoy watching others suffer.
I live in the USA. I have a terminal illness that is dragging on and im so tired of suffering. I asked my doc about dr assisted suicide and almost wound up in a psyche ward. Only the fact that he has been my doc for years saved me from that humiliation. We need to help those that cannot help themselves anymore.
I am from Oregon, move there and talk to a doctor. They will help you if that is what you want. I'm so sorry......
Now you don't need to live in Oregom for the Euthanasia
@@Eyebagdude too hard to move. It shouldn't be so hard to just go to sleep and be done! This country is so messed up! No pain meds either!
I am so sorry for your suffering ❤️
I totally agree. I am ready to go,, but the laws say I can't What right do they have to tell when the Right time is for me
I am one of the people who has had the honor to be his student at one time. what a great professor he was.
As controversial and sad as it may be, I do believe physician assisted suicide should be legal. No person should be left to suffer with an incurable disease, in agony and pain all the time. When I think of a terminally ill person, I think of torture. Just imagining how terrible it would be to spend your last of days in a hospital bed, taking medication that is only prolonging your life, but not saving you, should be enough to make anyone support physician assisted suicide. Nobody wants to think about death, but when it comes down to it, terminally ill patients are going to die. Why make them suffer?
Elizabeth Guglielmi
Right on! Perfect analogy too. It sucks that we have to suffer torture and be driven to suicide. That in itself is traumatic and painful and scary.
Good analogy. Torture. I am being tortured right now. I have not a life but a hellish existence. An illness that is so rare it has stumped the medical doctors. I didn't deserve this fate. I didn't do anything so bad that it merits this hellish nightmare.
Our bodies become prisons and it should be that nobody should suffer. When living is nothing but fear and pain it is time to go. This is lunacy!
Thank you for the support of allowing others to end their suffering. This is not up to anyone but the person who is wanting to end their own life. No one should be allowed to tell you no.
Excellent topic When has the right To relieve their own suffering And they spend a fortune. Keeping them alive. The man is right. Dogs get treated better. With more compassion
As a previous student of Dr. Saxe (had him for most of the courses he taught), I have to say that this lecture is but a fragment of Dr. Saxe's prerogative and genius. He is a brilliant intellectual, however, he is very careful to come out in specific doses and to different audiences, depending on topic. The commonality of his speeches seem to always end in some paradoxically questioning twist, "I'm not sure I would do it, or believe it or agree with it", almost contradictory at times, but he poses the question and makes people think. He is truly a great professor, but you can understand him better face to face, if you can keep up. Glad to see he is still out there - he is very active and involved in the community and politics and has a heart of gold, whatever his cloaked beliefs may or may not be. God bless you Dr. Saxe!
Johnny84R6 I agree. I had his TX Govt class, and I really enjoyed it and learned a great deal from him. Brilliant professor!
I was lucky enough to have Dr. Saxe for a semester and it was by far the best class I ever had. I just happened upon this video not long after learning about his passing. An incredibly selfless, funny, and intelligent human, we lost an absolute legend. I hope he was able to go peacefully and without suffer. RIP
As a current student of Dr.Saxe I can say this doesn't begin to define his personality. I love his course because he Is a really amazing lecturer.
i believe in a person HAVING THE OPTION, THE CHOICE,,,,,after all,,,,,,,look how many commit suicide. when one is merely existing and not truly living
And a legal, medical process for it would also reduce the suffering of loved ones. Suicide inherently has to be done in secret, which is highly traumatizing to everyone involved.
Vs a model like what they have in Belgium, the person pursuing the end of their life can have their family and friends involved in the process if they wish…
I agree , we all should have the choice to have a dignified death, why is the sense of extending suffering when there is no hope of cure.
I wish that the Assisted dying law could be passed in the UK.
I'm from KSA I'm thinking to go Netherlands so I can use the right to die there, but I'm afraid they need certain visa or stuff
@@ismailbahamdin9948 May I ask why you wish to end your own life?
@@thurmanmerman6173 because I don't like it at all. I understand it seems like a big deal to you or others but to me it is not, is sign for peace.
I went to my doctor for DNR and he acted like I was crazy and suicidal. I fired him.
treat/// you put that in your living will. It is not up to your doctor to decide.
I think a person should be given more latitude on whether they want to keep living their remaining life. It should be no one's business if a person wants to have an early termination of a life like when they are in their 20's or past the age of 60. Besides who is living the life? Not the person who wants to kick the bucket, but the survivors.
Exactly.
Yes you are right I'm agree with you.
I respect Dr. Allan Saxe’s courage to discuss the right to die as it is such a controversial topic that many people avoid due to fear. I believe Dr. Allan Saxe made several great points regarding assisted suicide and I can understand the need for physician assisted suicide in our society as each and every one of us will eventually reach the stage of dying in our lives. I agree with Dr. Allan Saxe that we should have the opportunity to reach out to our healthcare providers and say I want to end suffering. That is an option that we should have because of autonomy. Autonomy is one of the key ethical principles in the medicine where competent adults have the right to make informed decisions about their own medical care. When a patient understands the risks and benefits of their decision along with other alternative choices, they have the right to make that decision as long as it doesn’t harm other people. This is one of the main arguments that many people use to convince others on why physician assisted suicide should be allowed. Although I personally also believe that people should have the right to exercise their autonomy, I would like to argue that there are many factors to consider and address prior to legalizing physician assisted suicide worldwide. For examples: would patients give up easier if assisted suicide was an option? Would patients exercise their right to die because of fear of being a burden to their families? Would physicians and researchers give up easier in trying to find new medications or therapy options? Would family members later sue health care providers because they later regret that decision? Are we doing more harm than good when we end our patients’ life? Even though patient autonomy plays a significant role in medicine, we can’t forget about the importance of the other three medical ethics principles including non-maleficence and beneficence. The principle of nonmaleficence requires of physicians to not intentionally create a harm or injury to the patient while the principle of beneficence requires health care providers to be a benefit to the patient. I believe non-maleficence and beneficence are both equally as important as autonomy when it comes to making physician assisted suicide a universal right. I can understand Dr. Allen Saxe’s concern about wanting to legalizing medically assisted suicide as time is ticking and no one wants suffering, but there are a lot more that we have to consider prior to legalizing physician assisted suicide. It should be an option that patients should have to relief suffering, but the guidelines need to protect both the patient and healthcare professionals.
Similar to abortion, or any other topic in medicine that deals with valuing a patient’s autonomy, I believe that the right to make decisions about one’s own body lies with the person themselves.
The quality of one’s life is far more important than the length of one’s life. If one has a terminal illness or is in incredible amounts of treatment-resistant pain, their quality of life may not be adequate. Opponents of the Right to Die cite religious beliefs, etc. as a reason to fight against such interventions, which is understandable, but imposing those beliefs on others - especially those who are suffering - is devoid of compassion and not how a balanced system should function.
This topic is an ethical battle, but especially so for physicians. As a culture, doctors have been tasked with “saving lives”, but is that really their role? Shouldn’t their role be to improve the quality of one’s life? To maintain current health and aid a patient in preserving it for as long as possible? I believe this is a far more ethical, attainable, and respectful goal and role for physicians. With this in mind, then, the Right to Die should be in keeping with a doctor’s role.
I believe to deny the Right to Die would violate two medical ethical tenets. Firstly, autonomy would be violated. Autonomy is the obligation a physician has to respect the inherent right a patient has to make decisions about their own lives. By denying them the dignity of a controlled, painless death, the tenet of autonomy would not be upheld. Secondly, the tenet of beneficence would be violated. This tenet describes the obligation a doctor has to make decisions that result in the “most good”. In this case, forcing a patient to suffer until the moment of their natural death would not, in my opinion, be the “most good”. On the contrary, keeping them free of pain and preserving their dignity is most important.
On the other hand, I also understand the opposition’s argument that the tenet of non-maleficence would be violated by respecting the Right to Die. Non-maleficence is an ethical tenet that describes the obligation a doctor has not to cause harm; traditionally, this is known as the doctor’s oath to “do no harm”. I agree that ensuring the purposeful death of a human being could constitute “harm”, however, this issue brings up another point. The ethical tenets of medicine are not, by nature, cooperative. They can exist with or without the other, meaning that while upholding one, you may be violating another. Determining which tenet to violate and which to protect is a matter of critical thinking that should be left up to physicians and their patients - not court systems or politicians.
Regardless of my opinion on this topic specifically, I am firmly of the belief that medical decisions should be made by the medical community and not the political world. Leave the expert-level decisions up to the experts in those fields.
Very well said
A patient’s right to choose to die in the face of certain suffering is a complex and controversial topic, so I commend Dr. Allan Saxe for his bravery in opening a discussion about it. It seems that his primarily belief is that it should be the patient’s right to choose to end their life if suffering a painful death is inevitable, which is an idea that fits into the general concept of patient autonomy. Patient autonomy is the right of patients to make their own healthcare decisions, a paramount concept in medicine. Medical professionals are to respect patients’ decisions about their healthcare if they are well informed and understand the situation, so long as they are not harming anybody else with their choice. However, when it comes to a patient choosing to end their life when painful death is inevitable, the same level of patient autonomy is currently not being extended to them to do so in most areas of the United States. In my view, if a patient has a terminal condition, shows that they understand their prognosis, and they are mentally competent to make the decision to end their life (as evaluated by mental health professionals), they should be free to make the decision to end their life with the help of trained medical professionals. As Dr. Saxe said, “There is nothing noble in suffering.” I am currently training to become a physician. One of my primarily responsibilities as a doctor will be to ease patient suffering to the best of my abilities. While suffering can be a subjective term and change from situation to situation, it seems that keeping someone alive who is suffering and does not wish to continue living in that manner is causing more harm and suffering than helping them end their life on their own terms. We should extend the same amount of patient autonomy in end-of-life decisions as we do in other medical decisions throughout the patient’s lifetime.
Dr. Saxe makes you THINK...and that is the definition of a GREAT teacher....
Amen from an RN who is a nursing home nurse.
In my personal experience, there are some diseases that one just cannot come back from. There are some diseases that are just so debilitating that death seems like the absolute best and only way. In 2008, I lost my grandfather to esophageal cancer that eventually spread to his brain. During that time, he was bedridden entirely. He was attached to tubes to do all of his living for him, and eventually, he couldn't hang on any longer. In 2014, I lost my uncle at the age of 36, to melanoma. He was only in the hospital for 3 days when my family decided it was best for him to pull the plug on his life support. At that point, there was no more the doctors could do for him. It was spreading too fast. Earlier in 2014, my great-grandmother was hospitalized in the ICU for a week or more, and eventually passed at the age of 90.
So poses the question, how much is too much? How long are patients supposed to suffer before the doctors give the okay to pull the plug on them? Why do patients have to fight for their right to die with dignity before their disease takes their life? Why should they be forced to suffer through the agony of a terminal disease?
Assisted suicide should be legal in all states. We have the right to live, why do we not have the right to die on our own terms? Too many patients are being forced to suffer through their condition, knowing that the end is near, but not near enough to end the pain. They have to live in pain and live in hospital beds where they are open to being poked and prodded, but not able to live the extent of their life with their families, or happy for that matter.
Yes, there should be some rules against when a physician is allowed to proceed, but there should definitely be an option. It is more humane to allow a person to die freely, than to force them to live in pain and suffering until their disease takes them unexpectedly. Yes, it will be hard on the families. In my experience it can absolutely destroy a person, watching their close family members pass on, however, it is much easier to see them at peace than it is to see them alive and in so much pain.
and to all the 'normal' people that don't believe in assisted death for mental diseased such as bipolar or border line, I assure the emotional pain is just as extreme as physical. Matt 11:28
Yeah unfortunately we live in a society where mental illness is still not fully understood and although people have the best of intentions, they cannot see the true extent of the suffering, such as people with PTSD, Dissasociative and psychotic or severe mood and/or anxiety disorders. I would say that in such cases where no cure is procurable, i personally would rather have a terminal illness with an expiry date and would be very offended if my right to die were to be circumvented by a biased/discriminatory legislation.
As a student currently in medical school, this topic is an interesting one to think about. It is known in the medical community and in courts that when someone tries to commit suicide they do not have the capacity for medical decision. Even if that patient expressly tells the doctor to stop life saving treatment, the doctors are not obligated to stop. The mental capacity for a medical decision is a much higher bar then the capacity for monetary decisions. I believe that at this time in our health field, we are not ready to allow universal physician assisted suicide and as such should not be legal. There are too many interacting facets of the care of patients that it could put doctors in difficult situations when presented with a patient who wants to end their life. Is a doctor able to refuse a patient's wish to end their life? If he does refuse, his actions encroach on the patients autonomy. If he doesn't refuse, he is faltering in his commitment to non-maleficence and beneficence. This is just an example in the doctors perspective. If the doctor does refuse, can the patient turn around and sue the doctor for allowing pain and suffering? All of these need to be addressed properly before considering the legality of physician assisted suicide.
The problem with your logic here is that many places have had physician assisted death for a very long time. Oregon has had it for nearly 25 years. Plus many of the issues you mention are already covered by basic protections assuming you are US based. Of course a doctor can refuse. Just like how a doctor can refuse to perform an abortion. How some hospitals refuse to perform certain medical procedures based off of religious affiliation.
Also, I'm not sure what you mean by doctors aren't obligated to stop life saving treatment if explicitly told to stop. Do you mean in a suicide situation or in general? Because in general you can refuse treatment. In a suicide situation that's different since it's usually based off of a psychological disorder causing the suicide attempt. Hence why patients that seek doctor assisted death can't be suffering from a mental illness. I know people don't like to make the distinction but suicide isn't the same as physician assisted death.
Do you have never ending pain? I do. There's no reason to suffer. I want to go now. You don't know what agony is. If you did you would want to cease living as well.
Society judge you about your option to euthanasia or right to die to end pain but also never judge about your others human requirements and simple human rights
Such wisdom. Students of him are so fortunate and blessed. Reminds me of the great teachers I had back then too.
I agree with the Canadian courts: you can't call it a "right to (choose to) die" if you discriminate against people who don't have a terminal disease. Yes to the right to choose for ourselves. A hard NO to forcing those who for years, decades even, have been enduring grave and unremitting pain to continue to live with it day after day until something finally takes their lives.
While various experts have spoken on the “right to die,” and if it’s a valid concept for current patients, especially in consideration to physicians assisting in that process, I appreciate Dr. Saxe’s perspective and his comparisons to how society treats suffering in our beloved animals and pets versus the treatment of suffering in humans. Physicians have been instilled from day one within their medical training to preserve human life and therefore, it’s counterintuitive not only to physicians, but also to general society, for physicians to be assisting in patients’ deaths. However, I feel many physicians and the medical field have recently had to encounter this new dilemma of an increasingly aging population in the U.S. in the past decade or so. Physicians now must think more of the suffering component with their aging patients, while always upholding patient autonomy, an important medical ethics principle that allows patients with capacity to make their own decisions regarding their care. I feel if physicians have consistently maintained patient autonomy and open communication with their patients, patients should feel empowered to let their physicians know if they no longer desire to pursue further treatment. While the idea of physicians assisting their patients in “dying” seems counterintuitive, there are trained hospitalists and palliative care physicians that specifically focus on providing the most comfortable care to dying patients. Like much of current society in the U.S., I strongly advocate for patient autonomy and patients’ rights to either choose pursuing or declining treatments. This concept probably becomes more precarious in cases of where the patient is young with a mental illness and further investigation is warranted to be certain the patient has capacity to make that decision for himself/herself. However, returning to Dr. Saxe’s discussion, I genuinely agree that I never want any of my beloved pets to suffer and similarly, I never want any person that I know to suffer. My only personal stipulation is that I am uncertain about Oregon’s or Washington’s policy on prescribing the pills that will end a person’s life, though from my limited understanding, the process of being prescribed those pills is arduous. However, I do sincerely believe in a person’s right to choose whether that’s continued care and the potential for suffering or deciding to die on his/her own terms.
I very much appreciate Dr. Allan Saxe’s candid acknowledgement of the fear of death that we all share. While I do agree with his sentiment regarding the right of an individual to choose an ending of life that fits with their values and desires, there are several concerns that make me unsure of how wise it would be to enact a right-to-die policy. Both professional and personal experiences lead me to believe that it should be a person’s choice to end their life in a dignified way when they have a terminal illness. However, considering the state of our healthcare and insurance structure, the actual enactment of such a law causes me the most concern. Most disturbing to me is the possibility that insurance companies will be more likely to approve end-of-life measures that are cheaper versus expensive treatments that may/may not extend an ill person’s life. While anecdotal, there have already been situations where insurance companies have refused to cover expensive cancer treatments, but fully covered the physician-assisted-suicide drug. In my view, the argument of right to die vs right to live should be framed as the “right to choose”. We must be very careful that through right-to-die laws we are not forcing patients to make such decisions based on finances rather than values. I would be particularly concerned that underserved and underinsured persons would choose the assisted suicide path due to financial considerations. This would be unacceptable and unethical, especially considering the duty that physicians have to provide equal care to all regardless of social, financial, religious, racial factors. I wholeheartedly support patient autonomy; however, I also believe that we would be negligent to ignore the social consequences of a law that has the potential to increase disparities of treatment.
This is hard to imagine actually happening. First it's not up to the insurance companies to decide the eligibility of a patients right to die. It's usually up to multiple doctors both agreeing that the patient has a terminal illness and is of fit mind. In Oregon for instance the patient has to make the request on two separate occasions orally. Then it has to be in writing, witnessed by two people one of which can't be related to the patient. And it goes from there. Plus, there are already rules and regulations in place that dictate why claims can be denied and how to appeal them internally and externally. Unfortunately, as you alluded to, the healthcare and insurance industry is not concerned with morals but with dollars. That said, they have been denying claims for years for all sorts of things. To attribute them denying claims for certain treatments now with the increased awareness of physician assisted death is mostly fear mongering. The scenario you mentioned could boil down to someone wanting a treatment that shows no clinical benefit and arises from a patient or patients family reaching getting desperate. Mentioning that, there is a unique difference between a treatable illness and something that is almost certainly incurable and terminal.
People are supposedly really concerned about coercion but in our country, with our particular knack for making everything about profit, cant help but notice that helping people die when they decide it's time is the less profitable option.
I have brain cancer and I’m classed as Terminal I live on my own and I’m gonna have to consider it 9 years now since I had surgery on my left side after having a seizure and
This a very difficult topic for me to make a decision on. My morals tell me that assisting someone in dying is wrong, and on the other hand, it is their life and who am I to tell them what they can and cannot do with it. For this reason, I believe it should be legal, but only if the person can prove that they are suffering intense pain. I think it should be regulated and should not be made available to just anyone requesting it. If it is made legal, I believe it should be up to the physician to decide whether or not they would want to participate in it or not. I do not think that my conscious would allow me to help kill someone, even if it is what they wanted. However, like I said before it is not my decision to make the call about whether or not someone should live or die if they feel that they cannot take the suffering anymore. There is no way for me to know what they are going through. If someone is in so much pain that they cannot handle it anymore, they should have the option to pass peacefully.
I think people have the right to free will, but the difference between depression suicide and assisted suicide is not so different. They both include, “I can’t take life anymore.” What’s the difference.
I took my euthanased pet home. Overnight i had a little Wake for him ie candles his fav toys around him flowers. Next day i buried him in my garden and sang a loving song. People would deem me crazy but I loved him and respected him and was grateful for his being in my life. I wasnt going to just dump himnin a hole.
Great man great talk
I'm in the united states but where can i go to do this? How much Will it cost? Is it painless? Can someone please give me info?
@ironfang bigheart no one will help me. This is so unfair. I just want it done painful and peacefully.
I appreciate the speaker's candid discussion of his own fear regarding his death and ultimately wanting the ability to choose how his life ends in the event of grievous suffering. This is a very polarizing topic that is both interesting and complex, but I believe similar to the speaker that we should allow people the right to decide if they would like to pursue physician assisted suicide. This topic is multifaceted but I think at the core of the discussion are the principles of patient autonomy and physician beneficence.
Every patient should have the option to make decisions regarding the course of their medical care and I believe that the decision to end one’s life falls into the discussion of autonomy. However, I do not think that we should blindly allow everyone patient to pursue this path. I understand that this may violate my own support of maximizing patient autonomy, but I think that there are situations that this type of care should be implemented. In this regard, physician assisted suicide is no different than other forms of care or medical interventions. Obviously, this is somewhat of an oversimplification though. The situations I see it most fit for, are similar to those described by the speaker. These are primarily situations of terminal care or severe suffering revolving around a terminal diagnosis. In these situations, I believe that it is in the best interest of the patient to have the option to say that they would like to exercise the courage to no longer suffer. If the patient is judged to be mentally fit with the capacity to understand their situation, I think they should have the right to decide the course of their life.
The other ethical principle revolves around the physician's responsibility to do no harm. I think the idea of physician assisted suicide present a moral quandary that is muddled by the individual beliefs of every physician. From my perspective, the mainstream standard view of the medical field is that death is “bad.” Dying obviously represents a less than favorable outcome in most medical circumstances and it is incumbent on a physician to do everything in the their power to keep a patient alive or at a minimum to not do anything that may prevent this. However, in situations where death is likely imminent in a finite time frame and the patient is experiencing extreme physical and mental suffering, are we really doing no harm by forcing life upon them? I think it all depends on the physician's perspective of life and death but ultimately, it isn’t the physician's perspective that matters in this instance. It is the patients and that is what every medical provider must hold in highest regard.
You are wonderful.
great talk
People shouldn’t have to suffer against their will to cater to other’s dogma
This is so uplifting.
This is a delicate subject. Anyway, great talk.
4:58 PREACH
Switzerland too
I wish they would change the words death and suicide to transitioning. We make the choice transition as we are all in transitioning
There be a lot less nursing homes if this happened.
Adam Goll . It won’t be, because many people choose not to die that way. It’s a very personal issue and humane. What is the point of sitting alone in the Nursing Home with no visitors?
I need to go to the three countries
It's is indeed something that we need to think about.
They say suffering brings you closer to god winder if its true.
Yes!
It's not true. I've seen it many times. I've seen people with great faith. Pray and pray and have other people praying. God is not coming to save them. It is their right. To end their life when the suffering becomes that bad
Its doctors who are at fault when it comes to pain management. They don't care about a patient who is in pain and suffering .
100% agree with u. Been thru it post op and still suffering 31 yrs later moderate to severe almost all year.
4mins in
🔥
Yes i agree with you, thank you so much profecsor . im tired of sufering metal illness. Meaning of life with me is death. I wish I have better health in another life. Life is no mean if dont have good health or good looking
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
This is only ethical, why deny humans of the right to die. Even if you wanted to, least in the hands of professionals least you know its done once and done well
Suicide levels are rocketing in the west, especially amongst the youth. People don't seem to question why. As Godlessness increases, suffering increases. Those who believe in God find life so much easier but those who don't believe in God find everything difficult, that's what I've seen. Atheists the to be more lonely as well because they have less rules trying them they should get married.
Are you from South Asia or middle East?
Death knows no religion. So your personal religious beliefs should not dictate another person's right to not believe in a religion or die with dignity.
Shove your dogma
I'd never torture pro-lifers for money.
I'd do it for FUN!
am I the only guy who saw this as a joke?
I hope so
What’s the joke
The “ Christians” bullies pushing their rules on everyone else
What a strange man