Should physician assisted suicide be legal?

Throughout the United States, committing suicide or attempting to commit suicide is not
a legal offense; however, helping another person commit suicide is a criminal act.
Physician assisted suicide occurs when a physician facilitates a patient's death by
providing the necessary means and information to enable the patient to perform the life-ending
act. Physician assisted suicide is illegal in most countries. In the United States, Oregon is the
state where it is legal. It allows people who are terminally ill and in intractable pain to get a
lethal prescription from their physician.
Physician assisted suicide has been gaining support over the past half century in the
United States. There are many issues involving physician-assisted suicides. The main issues are
that the terminally ill should be able to choose when they should die, physician-assisted suicide
would help alleviate the suffering of both the terminally ill patient and their family, and
physicians should not be prosecuted for their role in physician-assisted suicide.
Many believe that terminally ill patients should be able to choose when they should die.
Also, these patients who are willing to request physician-assisted suicide want to "die with
dignity" and die on their own terms. Many terminally ill patients don't want to live without
working body parts. These patients seem to want an easy way out, but in reality they dont
want the agony of treatments because they would be the one experiencing all the side effects of
these treatments. Also, these ill patients fear the suffering and pain that comes with being
terminally ill.
The terminally ill don't wish to suffer, nor do they want to bring suffering on their family.
While many families would like their ill loved ones to continue to live as long as possible, some
terminally ill patients would rather not endure their suffering while witnessing their family's
suffering as well. For many the model is Oregons Death with Dignity Act. It allows doctors to
prescribe lethal drugs to patients with less than six months to live who ask for them, if a second
doctor agrees. There is a cooling-off period of 15 days.
On the other hand, this issue brings a lot of fears. One fear is that assisted dying will be used on
vulnerable patients, bullied by rogue doctors, and grasping relatives. Another fear is that assisted
dying will downgrade care. In Oregon 1,327 people have received lethal medicine, two-thirds of

those have used it to take their lives. Assisted dying now accounts for about 3% of deaths in the
Netherlandsa large number.
Many will argue that we dont know if they are just taking advantage of the system and
not because they are terminally ill. How do we actually know if the ill are able to make that kind
of decision. We cant let loved ones make that call either because they arent the patient and they
dont know how close or possibly how far they actually are from passing, and maybe it isnt even
that bad but they cant tell because they arent that person. Its too much stress and pressure to
put on a loved one to make that call. If someone is thought to be close to the end do they really
have the judgement to know what the right call is, they are impaired. If we did allow euthanasia
how would we know when the right time is. How horrible would someone feel if they made the
choice to end someones life but that person could have actually overcame the illness. You just
dont know if it is actually the end or not. Seriously ill people often suffer from undiagnosed
depression or other mental illnesses that can impair their ability to make an informed decision.
How, then, should assisted dying work? Opponents of suicide argue that the constitution
recognizes the sanctity of life and no one has the right to end the life of another person. They
also argue that the times shared between the patient and family is treasured and cannot be taken
away.
People who support physician assisted suicide argue the fact that they really dont want to
live any more, and they are going to die eventually, so why should they keep going, and why
should they be miserable when a doctor can help them end that for them. Another argument is
animal euthanasia. We dont let animals suffer, so why humans? Approximately 6 to 8 million
animals are handled by animal shelters in the U.S. each year. Supporters of Euthanasia argue that
we use it on animals and dont let them suffer so we should start to look into it more for humans.
A pet owner watching his pet suffer, decides to put it down. Now the argument is a spouse or
child is watching their loved one suffer to their end, it should be ethical to help them. One would
also argue that the pain is just unbearable and there is no fix, and ending a lifelong miserable
pain would just make sense.
Terminally ill patients face a huge predicament in how to live their last days. While some are
willing to brave nature and face a slow death, others wish for faster and less painful methods.

Physicians may assist such persons to end their lives by administering life ending medication to
these patients.
There are many ethical reasons that are opposed to any physician assisted suicides. Similarly,
there are several ethical reasons that support this procedure. Some of these ethical reasons
include liberty interest, dignity in death, cost benefit analysis and proper legislation to guide the
already prevalent practices. Additionally courts have not expressly decided that it is illegal
simply providing guideline on the matter. In conclusion, legalizing Physician assisted suicide
will go far in maintaining the dignity of the patient and other ethical aspects.
In my opinion, every individual has the right to decide on the manner in which to live life. That
autonomy should also be extended to persons suffering from terminal conditions and therefore
should control the timing and the manner of death they wish to face. Every person has the option
to live quality life and avert any suffering and pain and be allowed to do in a dignified manner.
Thus terminally ill patients should be allowed to die in dignity without the need to face any
anguish and this autonomy must not be taken away from them.