Persuasive Essay Against Assisted Suicide

We are culturally ingrained from an early age that life is precious and each day is a gift. Life should not be squandered but preserved.  We are encouraged to live with a purpose, cherish our loved ones and live life to its fullest. But what if life becomes too physically painful to endure, often experienced by many terminally ill patients suffering an incurable disease, or a chronically ill elderly person who lacks the ability to thrive?  For forty-five day’s I watched my chronically ill mother languish away in a hospice care facility. The experience was emotionally and financially draining, and I began questioning whether a person should have the right to choose when and how to end their life. In the United States, assisted dying is a widely debated and passionate issue. Opponents argue preserving life, regardless of how much a person is suffering, is an ethical and moral responsibility, determined only by a higher power.  At the other end of the spectrum are those who support a person’s right to end their life with dignity at a time of their choosing.   Wouldn’t my mother’s suffering been greatly reduced if her doctor was legally and ethically permitted to administer a lethal cocktail of drugs to end her life quickly and painlessly? Wouldn’t the prevailing memory of my mother see her in a better light instead of helplessly watching her undignified death? To deny terminal and chronically ill people the freedom to end their

The word suicide gives many people negative feelings and is a socially taboo subject. However, suicide might be beneficial to terminally ill patients. Physician- assisted suicide has been one of the most controversial modern topics. Many wonder if it is morally correct to put a terminally ill patient out of their misery. Physicians should be able to meet the requests of their terminally ill patients. Unfortunately, a physician can be doing more harm by keeping someone alive instead of letting them die peacefully. For example, an assisted suicide can bring comfort to patients. These patients are in excruciating pain and will eventually perish. The government should not be involved in such a personal decision. A physician- assisted suicide comes with many benefits for the patient. If a person is terminally ill and wants a physician assisted suicide, then they should receive one.

Who dictates how you live your life? How does one define life and when that life should end? If you become terminally ill, would you like the choice to choose how your life ends? In the United States, assisted suicide, is a highly-debated issue. On one side, there are many in support of allowing a person the right to end their life with dignity at the time of their choosing. While others believe, it is a moral right to sustain life and leave a person’s exit from this world to a higher power. The two opposing viewpoints have both compassionate reasons and disadvantages; nevertheless, a person’s human rights as an individual are the most important aspect to uphold.

In the ever changing role and dynamic atmosphere that healthcare provides, unique challenges and opportunities constantly arise which are a multi-faceted labyrinth of ethical and moral dilemma. One of the most contested and widely debated topics to be found in the healthcare workplace today is the subject of Assisted Suicide. Altering a person’s course of death into a process driven role, rather than the client’s final life event, creates a myriad of ethical and moral dilemmas.

Physician assisted suicide is an act of compassion that respects patient’s choice and fulfills an obligation of non-abandonment (Sulmasy & Mueller, 2017). Death is the inevitable end of life of a person or organism. As humans, we live the best way we can and with medicine and technology, humans can live a quality and healthy life-style. However, there is no human who is supernaturally immune from diseases and accidents.

Assisted suicide is a significant topic that worries individuals everywhere throughout the United States. Some are against it on account of religious and other reasons. Others are for it because of their compassion and respect for the dying. For many the main concern with assisted suicide lies with the competence of the terminally ill. When people see the word euthanasia, they see the meaning of the word in two different lights. Euthanasia for some conveys a negative connotation; similar to that of murder. But after studying both sides of the issue, a compassionate individual must conclude that competent terminal patients should be given the right to assisted suicide in order to end their suffering, reduce the damaging financial effects of

Physician-assisted suicide is a very controversial topic in the medical field. It is a topic that has been debated over for years. Webster’s dictionary defines this terms as, “suicide by a patient facilitated by means (as a drug prescription) or by information (as an indication of a lethal dosage) provided by a physician aware of the patient’s intent” (Merriam-Webster). In other words, it is a way that when a patient is ill, they can commit suicide with the help of a physician. This practice is legal in some states in the United States and in many countries around the world. This topic is so controversial because people disagree on whether it is ethical to help someone end another person’s life. There are many people that advocate this and there are also many people that disagree with helping someone commit suicide.

Places all around the world have legalized assisted suicide and it has proven successful in every place. Canada, Japan, Germany, Switzerland the USA, including California, Washington, Oregon, Vermont, and Montana, all these places have experienced and legalized assisted suicide, and every place has had an overwhelming increase in the happiness and welfare of its overall population. Canadian justices, while explaining their change in heart over assisted suicide said, “What has changed...is that other countries, including the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Colombia and Switzerland, plus four American states, have shown that assisted dying can be well regulated” (Last Rights, 2016, para. 4). This in itself expresses that because of the success other countries have already received, the implementation

Physician assisted suicide is a crime almost everywhere, by one statute or another. In countries where assisted suicide is legal, there are guidelines, such as mandatory written request, administration by physicians only, and mandatory reporting of suicide, to prevent any abuse, however, they are often not enforced, or violated. Currently Washington, Oregon, Vermont, New Mexico, and Montana are the only states in the U.S that have legalized assisted suicide. Those who oppose assisted suicide argue that the legalization of it may have unintended consequences, that are not confined to only those states citizens. A person who is terminally ill, disabled, or elderly, may look to assisted suicide as an only resort, rather than a last resort, which it was initially intended to be. Assisted suicide should be abolished throughout the United States.

In the preamble of the Declaration of Independence, it is stated that we all have the right to life, but does that also mean we also have the right to die? Under the Death with Dignity Act (assisted suicide), this is possible. assisted suicide is a process in which, if a terminally ill adult chooses, a doctor will legally prescribe a lethal dose of barbiturates to end its life. Unfortunately, because of morality issues, the terminally ill only have the right to assisted suicides in a few U.S. states. The U.S. government should allow terminally ill adults the right to choose assisted suicides in all 50 states because the right to choose should be our own.

With the advances in medicine, physicians have the ability to extend a patient’s life many years passed what was possible even a mere fifty years ago. However, the quality of life of those extended years has become a major topic of discussion. Many times the surviving years are miserable for the patient, as well as the family. Legalizing assisted suicide would benefit Medicare by bringing it out of huge debt. Also, it would relieve the pain of terminal patients and open a door of opportunity for patients on the transplant list waiting for an organ. Because of all humans eventually die, every person should have the right to live a pain-free life. Although some religions are opposed to it, assisted suicide should be legal in all of the United States to the terminally ill.

“The value of the patient’s life does not depend on the patient’s subjective appreciation of it” (Social Conservatives). The debate over legalizing physician-assisted suicide in the United Sates has never been a simple one. Legalizing this practice diminishes compassionate treatment of pain because while palliative care is still available, assisted suicide encourages the elimination of patients themselves rather than of their suffering (Social Conservatives). Do not give one person the liberty to take the life of another (Procon.org). Although some advocates for assisted suicide argue that patients should be allowed a death with dignity, assisted suicide should not be legalized because all lives are valuable and legalizing this act will create

Imagine that someone that you love wanted to commit suicide. What would you do? Would you be able to stop them, or would you need to have professional help? Lives are lost everyday. Sometimes people choose to die by suicide while others may die in accidents. Whether people die by choice or by accident, they should know that God does not condone killing. Killing another is not justifiable in situations such as George and Lennie’s story, hunting for trophy, and committed suicide.

Recently, several states have modeled Oregon’s Right to Die Laws and have added laws that allow assisted suicide, and many more are considering some form of legislation to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia. With modern technology, advances have been made in medicine that allow people to live longer. As a consequence, there are far more terminally ill patients than ever before. Assisted suicide has become a viable alternative for some of these end of life patients. Doctors and other care-givers should not be allowed to assist terminally ill patients end their lives prematurely. Laws that legalize assisted suicide for terminally ill patients should be overturned because they allow a doctor to choose who lives and who dies and have other, unintended consequences that outweigh any benefits.

Did you know the word "euthanasia" comes straight out of the Greek word "EU", meaning goodly or well and "Thanatos", meaning death, put together you get the phrase the good death. So, why is that some states have euthanasia outlawed? Why do the doctors practice if they are trained to save lives? How does the family feel when the procedure is over? So would you rather die from a lethal disease and have doctors prolong your life or would you like to live your life for the time you have and end it on your own terms?