Kleiman's Argument Against Euthanasia

The patient is the only one that can deem how much pain they can tolerate and when they are ready to stop fighting. The choice of assisted-suicide should be chosen by those that are doing the actual suffering, they are the ones that are stuck living that way. No one should be told that they have to live the rest of their life in constant pain when there is a way to die in a painless manor. For instance, Mark A. R. Kleiman, professor of public policy at New York University and author, argues that “There are other people whose lives are so miserable that they prefer to end them…Some suffer from intractable physical pain. Others find their physical and mental powers failing and hate the thought of being dependent on others for basic activities” (Kleiman). To elaborate, Kleiman believes that terminally ill patients should be allowed the choice to die with dignity. Many terminally ill patients find it embarrassing to imagine that in a few months they will not be cable to bathe themselves, use the washroom alone, or even feed themselves. If a patient knows in advance that their physical and mental abilities

Opponents are concerned that by legalizing the euthanasian of terminally ill patients, then it would lead to the euthanasian of patients that are capable of living long lives. Imagine the horror of being able to get assistance in dying simply because the patient is mentally incompetent or is mentally ill. Usually if someone has suicidal thoughts or wants to commit suicide, people of the medical profession do everything in their power to help save them. If terminally ill patients want assistance in killing themselves, then physicians are not fitted for the job. Physicians should be helping their patients, not killing them. Ira Byock, director of the Providence Institute for Human Caring and professor of medicine, questions “Would we approve of a doctor giving a lethal injection to an elderly woman who was simply tired of living? A woman with constant ringing in her ears? A congenitally deaf man who is now losing his sight? A person who is chronically depressed” (Byock). Fundamentally, Byock believes in the theory of the slippery slope. This means that he is worried that the legalization of assisted-suicide will lead to the euthanasian of patients that could be saved or that families could be taking advantage of