• Death with Dignity Act - Oregon Health Authority states that, “ Oregon passed a law that allows terminally ill residents to end their lives through voluntary assisted suicide of lethal medication, directly prescribed by a physician.” - To be granted the ability for assisted suicide, the individual has to be suffering from a terminal disease and have a doctor that has confirmed that they only have 6 months or less left to live. - The Death with Dignity National Center says that, “By adding a voluntary option to the continuum of end-of-life care, these laws give patients dignity, control, and peace of mind during their final days with family and loved ones.” • Examples of some of the terminal illnesses that should be allowed for assisted …show more content…
The right to privacy is one of these enumerated rights given by the Ninth Amendment and this protects assisted suicide because a terminally ill individual should have the privacy to make a decision on if they do think it is time for them to die and this decision should be made by no one other than the terminally ill patient themselves. • Counter Arguments - If euthanasia was legalized, then society will eventually begin to authorize other actions that are seen to be morally unacceptable. • This argument assumes that the instance of euthanasia around the world is morally unacceptable. The problem with this assumption though, is that people that are pro euthanasia would deny that the instances were wrong because everyone views “morally wrong” differently. - There are several different options an individual can choose instead of assisted suicide if they truly believe that their lives have become intolerable. • Pain is not the only thing that gives a description of a life that is not worth living. Some individuals believe that continuing life in a minimum degree of awareness or even no awareness at all for the rest of their life is worse than death. • Not everyone agrees on how bad a life has to be before it can be defined as a life not worth