What is the primary ethical dilemma associated with Practitioner-Assisted Suicide?

• A. Autonomy and Beneficence
• B. Nonmaleficence vs Autonomy
• C. Justice vs Autonomy
• D. Beneficence vs Nonmaleficence

Answer: (B)

When a practitioner faces Assisted Suicide, the central ethical tension is between nonmaleficence (the duty to do no harm) and patient autonomy (the right of a competent patient to make their own end-of-life decisions). Autonomy supports honoring a patient’s informed, voluntary choice to end suffering, which might lead a clinician to assist. But nonmaleficence cautions that helping someone die can be a form of harm, challenging the physician’s role to protect life. Beneficence—acting to relieve suffering—often supports action in this area, yet the explicit act of assisting death sits at the intersection of autonomy and harm, making nonmaleficence vs autonomy the primary dilemma. Justice plays a lesser, though relevant, role in considerations about fair access and policy, but it is not the core tension here.