Introduction Assisted suicide is an ethical matter that has been the center of great debate. There are arguments to both sides as to why this should or should not be put into law in more states. The ethical issues come from people believing that this is murder or that it is against their religious beliefs. Currently 6 out of the fifty states, and Washington D.C., allow physician-assisted suicide. There are currently no assisted suicide federal laws. The matter is handled state by state. Assisted suicide should be allowed by all states as an option to terminally ill patients to end their life with dignity on their terms.
Argument
Autonomy is something widely talked about in the medical field these days. It is important to obtain informed consent in all patients for procedures. Doctors are held to a standard of making sure a patient knows what the alternatives to procedures are. This should be true to the dying process also. People should be allowed
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Oregon is a good example of how the law on assisted suicide should work. While assisted suicide is allowed, euthanasia is illegal. The person must meet certain requirements. Those being: be an adult, age 18 or older, be an Oregon resident, be of sound mind and able to make and communicate medical decisions, and be diagnosed with a terminal illness, being incurable and irreversible, that will lead to death within six months. After meeting those requirements, there is a list of 7 more steps that must be taken before the prescription of a lethal dose of medication is prescribed. The physician is then responsible for reporting this prescription of lethal medication. Washington D.C has similar regulations where a person must make 3 request, the last not being less than fifteen days after the