Pros And Cons Of Legalizing Physician Assisted Suicide

Neeraj Movva

O’Gorman

May 2, 2023

Nearly 1% of all suicidal deaths are assisted. In recent years, this number has risen to a whopping 3%. An estimated 1 million die and undergo suicide every year. Hence, physician-assisted suicide (PAS) is the cause of nearly 10,000 deaths worldwide, every year. Assisted suicide is already legalized in some areas of the United States and is being introduced to numerous other countries. As the name suggests, it is the act of leading assisted suicide to lead a peaceful death. There are many controversies about physician-assisted suicide, but perhaps the most popular and controversial one is if physician-assisted suicide should be legalized or not.

Supports say that PAS helps end the misery & immense pain that

A competent terminal patient must have the option of assisted suicide because it is in the best interest of that person” (The Right to Assisted Suicide - Lonestar College Education). Multiple patients all around the world face severe pain, pain which medications and drugs cannot cure and heal. As time goes on, this patient will face unbearable pain and it must be in their best interest to attempt and try to indulge in physician-assisted suicide. This will give patients the right to end their own life if what they are facing is too big of an issue for them to handle. The National Public Radio (NPR) once said and states, “Advocates of assisted-suicide laws believe that mentally competent people who are suffering and have no chance of long-term survival, should have the right to die if and when they choose. If people have the right to refuse life-saving treatments, they argue, they should also have the freedom to choose to end their own lives” (NPR Staff). As a patient’s pain grows increasingly worse, their only option is to adopt physician-assisted suicide. If there is no cure or chance of

These contributors to the debate and discussion state that even if patients live longer & prognoses are often inaccurate, some people may not have the money to afford medicine and might have no other option but to adopt physician-assisted suicide. Lonestar viewpoints and College states, “But, successful or not, medicine has a high price attached to it. The cost is sometimes too much for the terminally ill’s family. A competent dying person has some knowledge of this, and with every day that he or she is kept alive, the hospital costs skyrocket” (The Right to Assisted Suicide - Lonestar Viewpoints). These types of people show recent studies that all show that 60 million residents in the United States are unable to provide prescription drugs and medications. Supporters argue that out of these 60 million residents, at least 5,000 have a physical or mental illness that alters their life before. They argue that assisted suicide may be the only means for them, because they may not want to put their family in debt by asking for a loan. Hence, this once more goes to show the positive effects of assisted suicide in modern-day