ipl-logo

Pros And Cons Of Physician Assisted Suicide

1699 Words7 Pages

The proponents for physician-assisted suicide claim that it should be an option for terminally ill, competent adults to hasten the coming of their death. They truly believe that physician-assisted suicide is “a compassionate response to relieve the suffering of dying patients” (Before I Die: Opinions). This option, according to them, should only be exercised when all medical alternatives have failed, palliative care has failed to relieve agony, the patient requests, to die, and a second opinion agrees that it could be an option. These regulations should prevent wrong decisions of the handicapped, minors, elderly, or other incompetent parties (Before I Die: Opinions). One of the main topics mentioned in the discussion about the legalization …show more content…

They worry that elderly patients would worry about being a burden if they want to stay alive, hurried or insensitive physicians would make the wrong decision or recommendation, or patients who feel they have no other option would feel pressured towards suicide (Before I Die: Opinions). Similarly, a huge debate within the discussion is whether or not “weak and marginalized’ citizens of society are at a higher risk than others. When speaking on the regulations that would be set for patients to be eligible, Ryan Anderson from The Heritage Foundation said “Where it has been allowed, safeguards purporting to minimize this risk have proved to be inadequate and have often been watered down or eliminated over …show more content…

When it comes to younger people, the line gets much more blurry for me. There have been many people that I have known and loved who have been told that they have less than 6 months to live and have lived years longer than their prognosis. I find it hard to allow people to kill themselves that could have years and years of life ahead of them. I agree with the Bible in that we should not take our lives into our hands. I firmly believe that we are a part of God’s plan, and that means that He is the only one who can decide when is our time to die. However, even though I had a lot of debate over whether or not this is right, I do believe that it should be legal for elderly patients to request to die if they have less than six months to live and if they meet up with all of the conditions mentioned earlier, such as being sound of mind and making the request twice in a certain time

Open Document