A person should have the freedom to end their pain if their quality of life is unbearable because it is a fundamental human right. Legalizing assisted suicide enables a capable person to take his own life with the advice and assistance of a medical professional by receiving the prescription for fatal medications. The patient is the only one who can choose the day and hour of the legal assisted suicide, though. Despite the fact that some people are against legalizing assisted suicide, many people, including private residents and medical professionals, are in favor of it. (Sullivan, Katrina and David 601). A terminally ill patient may choose to terminate their suffering with the help of assisted suicide. A terminal illness is where a person is about to die in a certain period, and he or she cannot control it. Assisted suicide can adversely affect a family mentally and physically. The most typical type of assisted suicide is the physician-assisted suicide. Physician-assisted suicide is a scenario in which the doctor presents to the patient a means to carry out suicide. Physician-assisted suicide should be legalized for people who are suffering from terminal illnesses. Terminally ill patients should not have to suffer anymore. Therefore, legalizing physician-assisted suicide is necessary to put human rights in place.
First, people have the right to die in a human way and dignity. For instance, in the case of Maynard who was informed by her physician that she had only six months to be alive, she decided to relocate to Oregon and take advantage on the law of legalized assisted suicide to stop her suffering from the help of a medical practitioner. However, some medical practitioners oppose the legalization of assisted suicide, but they acknowledge and support patients who decline to be treated. These practitioners argue that they recognize a person is still a valuable human being regardless of the suffering they experience. Advocates of Legalizing Assisted Suicide argue that it is ethical for an individual to maintain his or her dignity by stopping suffering caused by terminal diseases. Advocates believed that ill people who are yet to die as a result of medical conditions should not be subjected to prolonged suffering and legalized assisted suicide is an ethical way to stop the pain (Sullivan, Katrina and David 598).
Secondly, patients have the right to the type and nature of treatment they want. The Bill of Rights of Patients states that a person has the right to be treated for various ailments and refuse to be treated if it is the options they want. Moreover, proponents of legalized assisted suicide assert that patients should be permitted to end their lives as part of their right to autonomy. Supporters also suggest that since the act depends on the patient’s decision, it is not an influenced option (Emanuel, Fairclough, and Linda 2461).
Legalizing Assisted Suicide eliminates the guilt of a dying person of being a burden to the family. Thus, legalization of physician-assisted suicide will take away the guilt of terminally ill patients who feel that they are financial, physically, and emotionally draining members of their family because of their medical condition. Most of the sick people believe that the best of removing their guilt is to put an end to their life through Legalizing Assisted Suicide. However, opponents of Legalizing Assisted Suicide argue that the advancement in healthcare will eventually lead to the curing of the diseases and disabilities that are considered incurable and so terminally ill patients may have a bearable life in future. It is not clear when the advancement in medicine will produce drugs to cure terminally ill patients; hence Legalizing Assisted Suicide remains the best option to eliminate the burden of patients suffering from terminal illnesses (Emanuel 147).
Some individuals lose their will to live and so they should be supported on this matter. Some people who have been sick for several years regard themselves as failures and wish to die. Legalizing Assisted Suicide should be supported since it is an autonomous choice terminally ill patients have to make. People have the right to choose what they want to do with their lives as long as they do not harm others. Conversely, the opponents of Legalizing Assisted Suicide suggest that patients who are pushing to end their lives can be persuaded to change their mind by giving them palliative treatment and making them comfortable. However, most of these patients have undergone palliative care before deciding on their fate; hence they should not be forced into further palliative care (Materstvedt 97).
If abortion is legal, assisted suicide should also be legal. In abortion, the mother of the unborn child decides the future of the child, and it is mostly based on whether the unborn child will be able to be supported. If the mother is allowed to decide on the future of the baby, then a person can as well decide their future. Legalizing abortion and illegalizing assisted suicide justifies the level of hypocrisy in the current society, that supports the change of laws basing on snobbery and opinion, rather than considering what is fair and what is right. Assisted suicide is more ethical than abortion since it is the person themselves who decide if they want to end their suffering (Wilson 2454).
Assisted Suicide is not a right or wrong thing, and humans have the right to freedom of speech. However, when considering Physician-assisted suicide, two important issues should be addressed. First, the person who should be permitted to receive Physician-assisted suicide, so that not everyone can seek to commit suicide. Physician-assisted suicide should not be eligible to persons who are healthy and young or have plenty of time to live. Second, the reason for Physician-assisted suicide should also be considered to limit only those people who should suffer from terminal illnesses.
Physician-assisted suicide provides safeguards and a valuable life service for people wishing to end their lives. Legalizing Physician-assisted suicide provides a means of oversight since ideas such a counseling can be incorporated in the process. Furthermore, medical practitioner’s assistance will guarantee success, hence eliminating a lack of suffering and the fear of serious injury without death. Therefore, allowing doctors to assist in the suicide process should be legalized (Emanuel, Fairclough, and Linda 2466).
Physician-assisted suicide should be legalized because people commit suicide everyday everywhere. Even if assisted suicide is not legalized, people will still commit suicide. Thus, if they will still kill themselves, the government should save the mess and the blood and help them. However, the opponents of Legalizing Assisted Suicide argues that it removes hope from the patient and his family. Doctors and families may opt for assisted suicide in scenarios where there is still chances of recovery. They claim that physicians may make recommendations that do not favor the patients and this will make patients lose hope in surviving (Materstvedt 99).
Legalizing Assisted Suicide provides a choice or option in the process of treating chronic illnesses. Physician-assisted suicide will present an opportunity for patients to decide if they will continue enduring with the pin from their diseases or if they prefer to die. However, this matter is morally questionable since the law or the state cannot decide on the method of death for the ailing individual. From a personal perspective, it is satiating and heartening for a patient to be aware that the role of choosing if they would die or live is theirs.
Medical treatments are always expensive, and serious health ailments or incurable diseases can financially ruin a family. Thus, in cases where patients can opt for assisted suicide, the kin or the family from a financial meltdown. Ailing people who have no chance of survival consumes more resources and time. Although life cannot be measured regarding resources, nurses and doctors can use their time to treat patients that can be cured instead of wasting resources and time in medical cases that cannot be assisted. Therefore, Legalizing Assisted Suicide can address this issue (Emanuel, Fairclough, and Linda 2468).
Moreover, Legalizing Assisted Suicide would allow patients to opt for death in a dignified manner. Many people suffering from chronic ailments or incurable diseases will suffer to become a pale shadow of their last appearance. From several psychological impacts and physical deterioration, a patient has to deal with numerous side effects of serious medical conditions. Thus, a person should be allowed to die with dignity (Emanuel 150).
Legalizing Assisted Suicide can help in preserving organs. As the health deteriorates, most patients suffer organ damage. Physician-assisted suicide will help in preserving the organs and therefore can be helpful for persons in need of such transplants (Pereira 38).
One advantage of physician-assisted suicide is that it gives an individual the right to decide on how they would like to end their life. Dying is considered as a human right, and so people should be allowed to have the right to die the way they want. However, the right to die is still a controversial issue since many people have distinct opinions about this personal issue (Emanuel 150). The Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act allows doctors to help terminally ill patients to end their lives by prescribing lethal doses. Assisted suicide should be legalized because it provides a quick, painless death. For instance, Sandra Wiener, a 64-year-old woman was terminally ill and suffering. She arranged with her physician for her death as an intensely private procedure. The two both knew the practice was illegal, but it was for the best of Sandra who had suffered for a long time. Although Sandra was committing a class E felony, she was lucky to die how she wanted and ended her suffering. On the other hand, the opponents of this controversial debate argue that only three ways involved in ending a life are accepted in the law. Killing in case of capital punishment, killing in war, and killing in self-defense. They assert that people who want to legalize assisted suicide never consider the risks of the medical procedure. Moreover, if assisted suicide was legalized five decades ago, the advancements that control some terminal symptoms such as breathlessness, nausea, and pain could not have been made today. The opponents in this debate also argue that certain diseases that were terminal some years ago are currently curable and the money paid by terminally ill patients also assist the medical sector in finding new ways of treating terminal illnesses. Although some of the claims raised by the opponents of legalized assisted suicide are vital and true, terminally ill patients should be allowed to choose the way they want to die because it is their right (Golden, Marilyn, and Tyler 24).
Assisted suicide is similar to mercy killing but with permission and it is not about not emotionally enjoying life or being sad it is about ill people who have no quality of life and are yet to die. Terminally ill people are sentenced to sickness and have limited time to live something that hurts them to move. These are people who cannot move or eat for themselves they entirely depend on caregivers in all aspects of their lives. Religion is not part of this, and in some cases, some of these people are not even religious. However, all available forms of therapies should be tried before jumping to assisted suicide (Pereira 38).
It is rational to legalize assisted suicide because it is wrong to let someone suffer from no hope of getting well. People who deserve assisted suicide are left in hospital beds with chronic diseases with no chance of recovery. It is not morally right to let people suffer as they wait to die. Human beings do not deserve to suffer during their final moments. Moreover, it is not the choice of the family, friends, or the medical practitioner, and it is the choice of the patient himself. No matter how sad the procedure is, the person who is dying should be allowed to decide what to do. No one will be forced on the option of assisted suicide, and it is simply what the patient wants to do. Therefore, assisted suicide should be legal so that those people who want it can have it (Golden, Marilyn, and Tyler 30).
Conclusion
Legalizing Assisted Suicide permits a competent individual to end his life with the guidance and help of a medical practitioner through the prescription of lethal drugs. However, the date and time of the execution of the legalized assisted suicide can only be determined by the patient. First, people have the right to die in a human way and dignity. Secondly, patients have the right to the type and nature of treatment they want. Legalizing Assisted Suicide eliminates the guilt of a dying person of being a burden to the family. Some individuals lose their will to live and so they should be supported on this matter. Some people who have been sick for several years regard themselves as failures and wish to die. If abortion is legal, assisted suicide should also be legal. Assisted Suicide is not a right or wrong thing, and humans have the right to freedom of speech. Physician-assisted suicide provides safeguards and a valuable life service for people wishing to end their lives. Physician-assisted suicide should be legalized because people commit suicide everyday everywhere. Medical treatments are always expensive, and serious health ailments or incurable diseases can financially ruin a family. Legalizing Assisted Suicide can help in preserving organs.
Works Cited
Emanuel, Ezekiel J. "Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide: a review of the empirical data from the United States." Archives of Internal Medicine 162.2 (2002): 142-152.
Emanuel, Ezekiel J., Diane L. Fairclough, and Linda L. Emanuel. "Attitudes and desires related to euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide among terminally ill patients and their caregivers." Jama 284.19 (2000): 2460-2468.
Golden, Marilyn, and Tyler Zoanni. "Killing us softly: the dangers of legalizing assisted suicide." Disability and Health Journal 3.1 (2010): 16-30.
Materstvedt, Lars Johan, et al. "Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide: a view from an EAPC Ethics Task Force." Palliative Medicine 17.2 (2003): 97-101.
Pereira, José. "Legalizing euthanasia or assisted suicide: the illusion of safeguards and controls." Current Oncology 18.2 (2011): e38.
Sullivan, Amy D., Katrina Hedberg, and David W. Fleming. "Legalized physician-assisted suicide in Oregon—the second year." New England Journal of Medicine 342.8 (2000): 598-604.
Wilson, Keith G., et al. "Attitudes of terminally ill patients toward euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide." Archives of Internal Medicine 160.16 (2000): 2454-2460
