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Assisted Suicide Argumentative Essay

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In 2016, more than 700 terminally ill patients in the United States ended their life on their own terms, taking part in physician-assisted suicide. Six states and the District of Columbia have “Death with Dignity” laws that allow physicians to prescribe lethal medicine to mentally competent adults with terminal conditions. Individuals against these laws believe that it allows for too many unintended consequences, some of these being possible elder abuse and illegal distribution of the lethal medicine used to carry out assisted suicide. On the other hand, supporters of this movement advocate that people who are terminally ill deserve to die on their own terms, instead of dying in immense pain from their condition. These vastly different opinions …show more content…

Generally, people advocating on this side discuss the possible unintended consequences that will occur if physician-assisted suicide is legalized on a large scale. One of these possible unintended consequences is the illegal distribution of lethal medicines. People against assisted suicide argue that since the patient has to administer the drugs themselves, and since they may do this outside of a supervised medical office, that the drugs could end up in the wrong hands. Once they are in the wrong hands, there is no telling what it will be used for, these people argue. Another unintended consequence that adversaries of physician-assisted suicide warn against is elder abuse, where a corrupt doctor may persuade or even force an elderly person to take the lethal dose of medicine against their …show more content…

Six states and the District of Columbia have “Death with Dignity” laws that allow physicians to prescribe lethal medicine to mentally competent adults with terminal conditions. Individuals against these laws believe that it allows for too many unintended consequences, some of these being possible elder abuse and illegal distribution of the lethal medicine used to carry out assisted suicide. On the other hand, supporters of this movement advocate that people who are terminally ill deserve to die on their own terms, instead of dying in immense pain from their condition. These vastly different opinions have me wondering: should terminally ill patients be able to take part in physician-assisted

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