Essay On Physician Assisted Suicide

1424 Words6 Pages

Most people would agree that taking a human’s life is almost certainly wrong. Despite this, the seemingly obvious moral rule becomes blurry with the mention of ending a terminally ill patient’s life as they wish. Physician-assisted suicide involves a doctor administering drugs to end a patient’s life at their request. Many argue that this is unethical and should remain illegal. By applying their beliefs and opinions on the value of life to explain the necessity for it to be illegal. Although at the expense of this decision are the few people who would use physician-assisted suicide as a resource when being diagnosed. Physician-assisted suicide must be legal because it would allow people to choose between their health, ensure we do not force …show more content…

People should be allowed to use their autonomy to choose what is best for them in their situations. Autonomy, a right given to each person, is the ability to self-govern what we do with our bodies. Each person is entitled to control over what they wish to do with their body. In most cases, they do have control. From what medications they take to body modifications and even daily lifestyle choices. Physician-assisted suicide is no different since choosing to die only concerns one person’s body. No one else should have the right to govern the patient’s choice. An ethical position that coincides with this argument is ethical relativism. Ethical relativism argues that one's viewpoint is not wrong since each person will have slightly varying opinions on the same topic, and therefore argues that there are multiple varieties of truth. With physician-assisted suicide, ethical relativism is essential since it emphasizes the idea that each person will have a varying truth on physical-assisted suicide, and a terminally ill patient who would like to partake is not wrong to hold that opinion. Though some argue against the action, this does not suggest it needs to be illegal. It does not require it to be illegal. Instead, it verifies the …show more content…

Patients who decide to end their lives but lack the proper resources for physician-assisted suicide will take drastic measures to end their lives. As described in a YouTube video The New York Times uploaded, “Jack Kevorkian and the Right to Die” many patients still find ways to end their lives, often more dreadful and burdensome. The video described how many patients choose to starve themselves to accelerate their time of death or relocate to a state where physician-assisted suicide is allowed. Despite the illegalization of physician-assisted suicide, patients determined to end their lives continue to find methods to go through with their desires. By not allowing people to have the proper means to end their lives, they turn to more drastic and painful measures to force death upon themselves. If physician-assisted suicide were legal, it would give people a chance to leave in a dignified manner that does not cause them to exasperate their symptoms. People who want to go through with the process should be able to fulfill their wishes and end their lives in a manner that will allow them to plan their death and not have to provoke their illness to a greater