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Should The Way You Die Be Your Choice? Essay

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The atmosphere around the topic of euthanasia and assisted suicide are controversial and bring up images of frail and suffering people screaming for their lives to end. This leaves you with two choices: to listen and end their lives or to alleviate the pain till it is bearable using modern medicine. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the etymology of the word euthanasia derives from Greek, which means “The action of inducing a gentle and easy death.” With this definition in mind I will determine the pros and cons of assisted suicide and euthanasia by using Neil M. Gorsuch's “The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia” and Kathleen Foley's and Herbert Hendin's “The Case against Assisted Suicide” and choose a side. Those who …show more content…

Those who support assisted suicide and euthanasia also argue that the patient has right to make the choice when it comes to how they die. If you can choose to deny medical treatment, which can lead to death, then assisted suicide and euthanasia will lead to the same result, but one is legally excepted and the other illegal, Justice Scalia makes comical comparison, “say that one may not kill oneself by walking into the sea, but may sit on the beach until submerged by the incoming tide;” (Grouch 50). Also, those who support assisted suicide and euthanasia believe that ending the life of another prematurely so the person will not suffer is an act of compassion has supporters explain, “it generates an obligation to relieve suffering.”(Foley and Hendin 43)
Those who are opposed to assisted suicide and euthanasia believe that lack of trained physicians in palliative care is the problem. When there are more knowledgeable physicians that can help alleviate the pain of those who are suffering it will reduce the need for assisted suicide as explained, “...the less physicians know about palliative care, the more they favor legalization; the more they know, the less they favor legalization.”(Foley and Hendin 3) Another problem is that compassion can be mistaken for pity and then physicians will questions whether the patient can think on his/her own

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