sician would be helping takeaway the life of an innocent patient (Battin, 282). It is also believed that people choose euthanasiadue to a doctor’s lack of training, believing that they are often overlooking the patient’sdiscomfort (Roberts, 251). A condition that may be bearable to one person, may be unbearable to another. Ifeuthanasia was legal many physicians and interns would learn to look at the discomforts of thepatients more closely and prescribe more specific medications to relieve their pain and makethings more comfortable. In some extreme cases it is more humane to end a patients suffering thento let it go on (Minois, 152). A physician’s role should not be limited to only aid and comfort of his or her patients. Thephysician also helps the friends and families of his of her patients to understand what is happeningand what is being done about it. The role of the doctor should also be to help end the suffering ofa patient as well as to ease the emotional pain of the patient’s family, even if it means ending alife. When a patient has a terminal illness the physician’s role changes. It is first to help thepatient live better for as long as he or she can. This means prescribing medications to help relievepain. When that is no longer possible the doctors role changes. It then becomes to help the patientin the transition towards death (Battin, 263). However those opposing euthanasia say that physicians need to just look at theHippocratic Oath. It states "I will give no deadly medicine to anyone if asked, nor suggest anysuch counsel." Some even believe that doctors should not even prescribe medication to help easethe pain of some. They believe that pain is meant to be endured and as long as it is bearable, andthat it should not be suppressed by any means (Battin, 216).The medical profession moved away from the Hippocratic Oath in the early 1900's. Theinternational Code of Medical Ethics states "A Physicia...
