Assisted Suicide Should Not Be Illegal

Imagine laying in a hospital bed living everyday in extreme pain with no hope of getting better. This scenario explains what many people go through everyday, which is a living with a terminal illness. M. Lee, a science historian, and Alexander Stingl a sociologist, define terminal illness as “an illness from which the patient is not expected to recover even with treatment. As the illness progresses death is inevitable” (1). There are not many options for the terminally ill besides dying a slow and painful death, but assisted suicide could be best option for these patients. Assisted suicide is “any case in which a doctor gives a patient (usually someone with a terminal illness) the means to carry out their own suicide by using a lethal dose of medication” (Lee and Stingl 1). Some feel that assisted suicide is unnecessary because it is too great of a controversy and will only cause problems in society. However, assisted suicide should be legal in the United States as long as there are strict regulations to accompany it.

Imagine you have a terminal illness. You are in immense, overwhelming, and constant pain, and it grows hard to bear. The medical bills are rapidly rising to keep you alive, and you know your family is going into debt. Waking up every day hurts more than the last, and the doctors say you have a month, if that, to live. They have checked your results and they know there is nothing you can do but wait. You often find yourself wishing there was a way you could have a peaceful, safe end to everything, surrounded by your family and loved ones. They can get out of debt and go back to their normal lives, and you will be in good hands and choose when you go. Assisted suicide is the practice that can allow an individual to do just that. It is when one

Oregon is one of only five states along with Vermont, Washington, Montana and New Mexico that allow medically assisted suicide. In the rest of the country, assisting people with suicide even if they are terminally ill will be accused as a crime. According to the KQED news, ”Advocates of assisted-suicide laws believe that mentally competent people who are suffering and have no chance of long-term

Assisted suicide is when you give someone else permission like a physician, to kill you. Assisted suicide is legal in at least six states (Tolle, 1996) and there is lots of people who wanted to die because the disease they might have at the moment is just too much for them. If a patient that wanted to die the they would either talk to a physician or their doctor and give the doctor permission to just kill the patient. Assisted suicide can only happen when your medication is not working and the pain from the sickness you have is just abdominale. There was a case that was about how a man who was going through chemotherapy he didn't want to go through it so he talked to his doctor about assisted suicide. They decided to

Assisted suicide is suicide committed with the aid of another person, or physicians. It is only legal in four states in the U.S., where physicians are allowed to prescribe medication to hasten death. Ending suffering through euthanasia is a moral issue that has caused many controversies.

Currently, six states have enacted the death-with-dignity law allowing a terminally ill patient the right to choose how their life ends after obtaining permission from those in authority. In 44 states, state law prohibits assisted suicide and an active participant considered as committing a criminal offence. The U.S. Supreme Court protects a patient’s liberty to refuse medical treatment, but continues to side with the government’s interest in preserving life outweighing a person’s right to assisted-suicide. According to the U.S. Code, “Assisted suicide, euthanasia, and mercy killing have been criminal offenses throughout the United States and, under current law, it would be unlawful to provide services in support of such illegal activities.” (U.S. Code)

Assisted suicide is the suicide of a terminally- ill patient, achieved by using a prescribed drug from a doctor for that specific purpose. It is legal in only six states in the United States of America including: Oregon, Montana, Washington, Colorado, Vermont, and California. Countries such as Germany, Japan, and Switzerland have legalized assisted suicide in past years. It has been disputed for many years and continues to be a controversial issue whether physicians should be authorized to end an individual’s life with their prescription and if this should be done legally.

In the United States today, only several states legally recognize physician-assisted suicide as an option for families and terminally ill patients hoping to embrace a death with dignity. Although there is a growing movement to promote access to physician-assisted suicide, the topic is still widely regarded as taboo. As of 2016, the states of Washington, Oregon, Vermont, Colorado, New Jersey, and California are the only states to allow full and legal access to physician-assisted suicide. Alongside those states are Montana and New Mexico, which legally offer “aid in dying,” meaning the state allows for physicians to assist in alleviating the longevity of the dying process.

Currently, physician-assisted suicide or death is illegal in all states except Oregon, Vermont, Montana and Washington. Present law in other states express that suicide is not a crime, but assisting in suicide is. Supporters of legislation legalizing assisted suicide claim that the moral right to life should encompass the right to voluntary death. Opponents of assisted suicide claim that society has a moral and civic duty to preserve the lives of innocent persons. There is a slippery slope involving the legalizing assisted suicide. Concern that assisted suicide allowed on the basis of mercy or compassion, can and will lead to the urging of the death for morally unjustifiable reasons is

These states include Oregon, New Mexico, Montana, Vermont, and Washington that allow the help of a doctor to take away the life of the patient that decide to end their life and the pain that is causing the patient. For example, pharmacist and doctors instruct the patient how to take the dosage of the prescribed drug. So. if in a case that patient don’t know how to take the drug and need help the patient can do it with the help of a professional health care. Physician assisted suicide is similar to assisted suicide because both are taking the life away, but the main the difference is it may be held or not held responsible of the action. Since most of the states don’t allow this, people actually move to those states that do allow it to end their painful lives and not having to suffer anymore. In the states that do allow it have certain requirements to be met in order to be qualified to take this action and additional requirements. In most states, the law of physician assisted suicide are similar and have the same requirements that need to be adhered. These requirements include, patient must be 18 years or older, resident of that state in which they live in, patient must be capable of doing this action, diagnosed with a terminal disease that is within the months to live. Some states may have other requirements to do this action and the time in which the patient will live. Oregon for

Physician-assisted suicide is an extremely controversial issue. Physician-assisted suicide is when a physician assists a terminally ill patient in ending their life by providing the patient with both the information and medicine necessary for them to carry out the task themselves (Ebrahimi 2012). On October 27, 1997 Oregon passed the Death with Dignity Law, permitting terminally ill state residents to end their lives by giving themselves a lethal dose of medicine prescribed by their doctor (Oregon.gov). There are people who believe that the Death with Dignity Law should be implemented across the nation because it gives people who are already dying from a disease a chance to end their life with dignity, while others believe that doctors

Today, most states do not honor the wills of their terminally ill citizens wishing to end their suffering with dignity and compassion. Even with accurate identification of terminal illness prompting legality of some end-of-life directives, most terminal patients must adhere to conventional symptomatic treatments imposing slow physical and mental deterioration without regard to other feasible options. Information garnered from the experience of Oregon’s legalization of physician assisted suicide illuminates the feasibility of this end-of-life option. Physician assisted suicide is beneficial for terminal patients choosing to circumvent imminent mental and physical indignities; therefore this end-of-life option should be legally executable devoid of prosecution.

The process of assisted suicide, or physician-assisted death, is a hotly debated topic that still remains at the forefront of many national discussions today. Assisted suicide can be described as the suicide of patient by a physician-prescribed dose of legal drugs. The reason that this topic is so widely debated is that it infringes on several moral and religious values that many people in the United States have. But, regardless of the way that people feel, a person’s right to live is guaranteed to them in the United States Constitution, and this should extend to the right to end their own life as well. The reasons that assisted suicide should be legalized in all states is because it can ease not only the suffering of the individual, but the financial burden on the family that is supporting him/her. Regardless of opposing claims, assisted suicide should be an option for all terminally ill patients.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld court decisions in Washington and New York states that criminalized physician-assisted suicide on July 26, 1997.12 They found that the Constitution did not provide any “right to die,” however, they allowed individual states to govern whether or not they would prohibit or permit physician-assisted suicide. Without much intervention from the states individuals have used their right to refuse medical treatment resulting in controversial passive forms of euthanasia being used by patients to die with dignity such as choosing not to be resuscitated, stopping medication, drinking, or eating, or turning off respirators.9

Assisted Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. There are many ethical dilemmas surrounding assisted suicide. Although there is no way to truly say whether assisted suicide is a good or bad thing. I can say that it would be ethically wrong to legalize it. How, it can open the floodgates for anyone to medically end their life, we are not meant to “pay God”, and it can jeopardize the ethical and moral duties of healthcare professionals. When someone thinks of the word “suicide” most think of a person killing him or herself to escape their problems, except assisted suicide isn’t quite the same. According to Batten “Assisted suicide is the means by which an individual choose to end his or her life via the help of another person, who may offer medical assistance” (Batten 398). Death isn’t something a health care professional should be allowed to assist with but rather guide the patient back to a healthier state.