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The Pros And Cons Of Physician Assisted Suicide

1818 Words8 Pages

As American citizens, we are guaranteed certain unalienable rights, stated in the Declaration of Independence, “[w]e hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” (Jefferson). Still thousands of terminally ill patients are being denied these rights as they discuss end of life care. Physicians assisted suicide involves management of life, the accomplishment of liberty from crippling diseases, and the pursuit of happiness to remove current suffering. Physician assisted suicide should be legalized around the country as an option for terminally ill patients to calmly end their life of …show more content…

Physician assisted suicide differs from “active euthanasia” which is when a doctor administers a lethal dose of drugs to a patient, to “passive euthanasia” refers to the removal of comatose or unresponsive patient from life support. Euthanasia means good death, from the Greek eu “good” and thanto “death”. It is extremely unethical to condemn a suffering patient to a lengthened life when the patient’s wish is a dignified death. The right to die is important because it is the choice of life or death for terminally ill people, who are living a life of pain and suffering. These people only have a short amount of time to live and most of the time when they come to the end of their life, it is just full of hospital visits, medical bills, and pain for them and their family. The right to die is moral and just and needs to be legalized in more states in order to help people with a very low quality in life, to help people save money on medical bills, and let people decide their own fate. Physician assisted suicide is legal in only few states: Montana, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, Washington DC, California, and Colorado. Many other states have considered enacting this right, but have received stiff opposition from religion, anti-abortion, and disability rights groups. Courts have made it legal to refuse life prolonging treatment or “pulling the plug” on life support, but the right to request medical assistance to speed dying has been argued. Many of the protests on this topic have come from people who are religious and pro-life, saying that doctors should focus on relief and curing of patients and not ending

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