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The Pros And Cons Of Assisted Suicide

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Assisted suicide: the act of killing oneself with the assistance of a physician. Assisted suicide is when a physician gives a lethal injection to a patient to end their life. Suicide is never the answer, and when assistance is involved the act becomes murder. Also, physicians are not supposed to purposefully kill their patients. Physicians take an oath to do no harm. Ending a life is definitely causing harm. Many people disagree with the act of assisted suicide and argue that most people who choose or consider aid-in-death are in a lot of pain and can’t think clearly because they are suffering or under the influence of potent mind-altering pain medicine. To protect Americans, assisted suicide should be illegal in the United States.
Doctors are not supposed to kill their patients, especially when the act is intentional. When a doctor gets a medical license, he or she has to take an oath, “I shall not harm.” Not many doctors intentionally kill their patients. According to an …show more content…

The only places in the U.S. to allow assisted suicide as of 2017 is the District of Columbia, California, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington. Only 5 out of 50 states allow the actions (Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection). Only 60% of voters in Washington voted yes on the actions, 32% did not (Oregon Public Health Division). 60:32 is not the largest majority in the world.
If we look at the numbers from the study polls, we can see there are more people in favor of Assisted suicide than oppose. Assisted suicide can be a good thing, as it can take people out of pain and misery they have suffered. It can also bring relief to families of the suffering. Moreover, sometimes people can survive the pain and illness that people using aid-in-death have. By participating in assisted suicide, they are giving up the chances. Any kind of self-killing is giving up on the world and on life, it is not honorable and should not be

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The right to assisted suicide is a heavily controversial and debated over topic that concerns people all around the United States. The arguments go back and forth about whether a dying patient has the right to end their life with the assistance of a doctor or physician. Some people are against it because of moral and religious reasons. Others are for it because of their compassions and respect for unhappy patients waiting to die naturally. Assisted suicide is prohibited by common law or criminal statute in all 50 U.S. states; medical aid in dying is specifically authorized in 5 states: Oregon, Washington, Vermont, Montana, and California.

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This is an example of euthanasia, and act where a physician intentionally causes death of a terminally ill patient. More specifically, voluntary and active euthanasia, when a physician is given consent by the patient, and has the intent to cause the patients’ death. Although, physician assisted suicide can be described as an act of self-destruction committed by a patient with the assistance of a physician. In actuality, physician assisted suicide is giving a patient a prescription for a lethal amount of medication that the patient later ingests to bring about death.

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Physician-Assisted suicide is legal in five out of the fifty states in America. These states include: California, Montana, Oregon, Vermont and Washington. Physician-assisted suicide is considered acceptable when a patient has less than six months to live. Physician-assisted suicide was publicly brought to attention in 1990 after Dr. Kevorkian assisted over 40 people into committing suicide in Michigan. Before the process starts, the patient must meet the certain requirements before given a lethal drug.

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Physician assisted suicide was first legalized in Oregon 1997 and was then followed by Washington, Montana, Vermont and most recently

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Physician assisted suicide should be legal throughout the United States. Assisted suicide should only be legal if the patient requesting it has a terminal illness. A terminal illness means the patient has less than six months to live. When a doctor is asked to help a patient into death, they have many responsibilities that come along with that question.

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End of Life Action Acts/, are Oregon (1994), Washington (2008), Montana (2009), Vermont (2013), California (2015), Colorado (2016), and Washington D.C. (2016). There are many regulations and rules that the patients have to participate and meet the criteria for to even be considered for assisted suicide. Even through all these hardships, the patients are still undergoing a terrible disease that, for all states (except Montana), has to be a determined death within 6 months. The patients only wish to for someone to alleviate them of the pain and suffering they going through.

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However, there are a few European countries that have legalized assisted suicide. They are Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland and England and Wales. In America, physician-assisted suicide is illegal in all states except for Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana (Moody, 2015, p. 278), and California (NPR, 2015). Oregon was the first U.S. state in which assisted suicide was legally permitted. In recent years, American’s the inclination towards physician-assisted suicide is increasing.

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Historically, assisted suicide was not legal anywhere in the United States, but recently more states are making it legal. According to the different states, assisted suicide is currently legal in Oregon, Washington, and montana. Hawaii, Pennsylvania, and Vermont are also considering allowing the law for physician assisted suicide to become legal in their state (Gordon). Before assisted suicide was a made a law, it was completely illegal for a physician to prescribe a lethal pill to a patient, but as of now, Oregon, Washington, and Montana are the places in the United States that do allow physician assisted suicide.

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Physician assisted suicide is when a physician provides the means required to commit suicide, including prescribing lethal amounts of harmful drugs to a patient. In the United States alone, there is great controversy about physician assisted suicide. The issue is whether physician assisted suicide is murder or an act of sympathy for the patient. The main point is that terminally ill patients should have a right to physician assisted suicide if it meets their needs and is done properly. Physician assisted suicide is an appropriate action for the terminally ill that want to end their life in peace before it ends at the hands of the terminal disease.

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As stated from the 14th Amendment, “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States” (Bill of Rights). Although some consider assisted suicide to be morally wrong, from a legal standpoint, it is the decision of the person to do with their life as they wish. Assisted suicide should be allowed because, patients have the right to die when they desire, and being able to give painless a peaceful death, when two or more doctors agree on assisted suicide, the patients will have access to lethal drugs, being able to take these people out of there misery. Assisted suicide has been around as far back as the Roman Empire. They used a method called mercy killing and it has been around as early as the Greeks.

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Even in states where it is legal, there is not much demand for assisted suicide. In 2013, 77 people in Oregon, died by assisted suicide. The issue with assisted suicide is patients are wanting to end their lives either because they are suffering from a terminal illness and are tired of suffering and want to end their life without pain. Assisted Suicide is becoming a problem in the United States and measures need to be taken. Assisted suicide started in the nineteenth century, when philosophers justified self- induced death for those who were sick of suffering.(CITATION)

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An estimated 44,193 suicides occur a year in the United States (“Physician-Assisted Suicide”). This fact shows how many people suffer each year in the United States. This large number of suicides are from people killing themselves due to depression, suffering, and much more. Assisted suicide can help people die peacefully without having to cause pain to themselves. It is an easy and painless way to end suffering to a person of any age.

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By definition, assisted suicide is when a medical professional prescribes a lethal dose of ‘poison’ to a patient who is suffering from an untreatable disease.

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Although family, doctors, relatives, and the government may have a say in whether or not assisted suicide should be legal, the patient themselves is the one who is dealing with the decision to end their own life or not. Assisted suicide should be allowed for the terminally ill in order to preserve their dignity. The book Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide, and the Philosophical Anthropology of Karol Wojtyla by AK Fernandes states, “If a person chooses, they ought to be allowed to have assisted suicide or euthanasia. Such a free choice will preserve dignity by allowing a person to maintain control over the timing and manner of their death.” Loss of dignity is closely associated with certain types of distress often seen among the terminally ill.

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Many debates and controversies arrive on topics many people don’t agree upon. Some of those topics include abortion, medical marijuana, and many more. Assisted suicide also known as euthanasia is upon those topics that many people may or may not agree on. Some may say that it helps people end the pain or suffering they may go through, others say that it is like suicide and it is wrong and unjust, in many religions it is even a sin and in others it is a way to heaven and having people waiting for you. There are some pros and cons about assisted suicide.

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