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Argumentative Essay: Jerry Brown And The Right To Die

693 Words3 Pages

Monday October 5th the governor of California, Jerry Brown, signed the “Right to Die” bill. This bill would allow doctors in California to prescribe lethal amounts of medications to end a terminally ill patient’s life. Brown signed this controversial bill after explaining that he did this based on his personal decision “of want he would want if ever faced with his own death.” Governor Brown wrote in his letter to addressing state law makers that he “is certain that he would find comfort in being able to consider the options afford by this bill”(Botelho). But the Californians Against Assisted Suicide (CAAS) called this bill flawed saying that lawmakers should first consider how this bill could affect the disadvantaged people of America. The …show more content…

The first issue is that the government is treating this “Right to Die” bill as a right that can be given and taken away. When in fact our right to live and die should fall under our Autonomy “our right to self-governor” (Vaughn). At no point should a governing body impede our constitutional right to self-determination, as long as that person is of sound body and mind. The second issue regarding the “Right to Die” bill is that it goes against Rawl’s Contract Theory “a social contract among individuals for mutual advantage” (Vaughn). This means that if everyone had the same health insurance as Governor Brown then everyone would get the best treatment possible of any disease that could force them to enable this bill. This means that no insurance company would deny a claim for treatment of a disease but approve a life ending medication just because it was cheaper. The final issue is the issue of Utility in regards to this bill. This bill does not produce the most favorable outcome for all involved. In fact, it causes concern for the people with disabilities, as well as the lower income classes. And these are only some of the people that this bill can negatively effect. The fact that people committed medically assisted suicide to save money should be a very serious concern for everyone. While this bill is a good thing for those that are terminally ill, it causes concern for those that are in lower

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She continues to state, in a profit-driven health care system many individuals would needlessly die due to insurance companies would refuse to pay for much-needed medication and equipment. It would be far too easy for them to pay for much cheaper lethal medication. This scenario has already played out in the state of Oregon where it is already legal where assisted suicide is much cheaper than treatment

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