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Should We Legalize Physician Assisted Suicide?

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Within the past thirty years, scientists have made multiple medical breakthroughs, such as the identification of HIV/AIDs, a successful attempt at cloning, and the first vaccination for Lyme disease. Compared to the lack of medical knowledge in the 19th century, the average American lifespan was around 30 years old. Currently, Americans live, on average 70 years of age. However, an unsettling percentage of these survivors begin to decline before the age of 70 from illnesses that cause great discomfort or pain. Regardless of the extended lifespan, what is the difference between being alive and living? Being alive suggests physical, mental, and emotional ability to complete desired tasks, whereas living implies having a pulse and breathing. When an individual is terminally ill or in a comatose state, is it moral to kill a suffering patient or to force them to continue in their suffering? Physician-assisted suicide should be legal in all states because it is inhumane to force a human being to suffer since they should have the right to determine their own fate. …show more content…

Many believe it is in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, which states that, “no state shall deprive any person of life” (“14th Amendment”). However, the determining factor of life is not universally agreed upon, and one’s condition varies based on his or her ability to carry out daily tasks. Contrary to some common beliefs, the ban on physician-assisted suicide causes suffering for both the patient and for his or her family. Not only is it unfair to make the individual endure excruciating pain, but also no family member or friend should need to be a helpless bystander, watching a loved one slowly

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The 10th amendment explicitly states that “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people,” (Annebergclassroom). Therefore, the states utilized this statement by justifying the argument that since there is no enumerated law in the constitution about specifically physician assisted suicide, then it should be up to the states to control the issue. Originally, the federal government used the 14th amendment - “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States” (Law Cornell) - as a justification claiming that they should have power because they viewed assisted suicide as a right and a privilege; however, the states rebuttled by claiming that this was not applicable in the western culture, resulting the Supreme Court to allow states to override the federal government’s argument. A lot of their reasons for arguing over this cause is for the protection of public health. Since physician assisted suicide is has to do with public health, it resulted in both national and states to be concerned, resulting concurrent

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