Tate Weber

Professor Waggoner

English 1201

August 2, 2020

Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide Literature Review

Euthanasia and assisted suicide (AS) are very sensitive subjects. Whether it’s because it reminds

us of our own mortality or because we worry about the ethical implications, it seems to be a difficult

issue to solve. There’s a lot of support for and against assisted suicide and euthanasia. A Gallup poll

found that 65 to 75 percent of adults in the U.S. support allowing doctors to assist patients in dying

depending on the wording that was used [ CITATION Brenan18 \l 1033 ]. Those that support AS believe

in a patient’s right to decide but many people have serious concerns that the regulations in place for

patients’ safety might be ignored.

In the United States anti-euthanasia laws have existed as early as 1828. It wasn’t until 1994 that

active euthanasia was allowed in the United States and it was only for patients expected to die within 6

months [ CITATION Brazier18 \l 1033 ]. Meanwhile, physician assisted suicide has been legal in

Switzerland since 1937. In 2002, AS was decriminalized in the Netherlands and legalized in Belgium. For

this reason, much of the studies on AS have been conducted in these countries.

The most common concerns are that AS will be performed on patients without consent or that

are mentally ill. Others worry that regulations will be ignored more and more as time goes on.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide are considered last resort options that are reserved for only the most

serious cases where a patient’s symptoms can’t be helped and there is no other option. Many foresee

legalized assisted suicide as a slippery slope that ends in the devaluation of human life and that people
suffering from anxiety or depression might choose AS haphazardly. Many don’t agree with this framing

of AS and consider it their right to choose for themselves regardless of the situation.

Opponents of AS site statistics that point to large scale AS regulation violations. One study

showed that, in one region of Belgium, nearly 32 percent of euthanasia cases were done without

request or consent [ CITATION Pereira11 \l 1033 ]. It is important to note that over 90 percent of those

cases were done without consent because the patient was either comatose or had dementia. This brings

into question should the decision be left up to physicians when a patient is no longer capable of giving

consent.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide are two very different procedures. When a doctor puts down a

comatose patient its euthanasia. In assisted suicide, the patient is taking their own life with professional

assistance. In the case of assisted suicide, there is the argument to whether a patient should be allowed

the decision to take their own life when they may be experiencing a simple case of depression.

Challengers of AS would consider this overstepping the bounds of what is an acceptable circumstance

for the use of AS. Others would argue that it is an individual right to make this decision. The flip side of

this is considering a doctor’s rights to choose whether to be involved.

In the end, the decision to legalize euthanasia or assisted suicide comes down to the opinion of

the citizens. One study shows that a simple change in phrasing has a massive impact on a person’s

approval for AS [ CITATION Brenan18 \l 1033 ]. Approval for AS goes down by 7 percent just with in

introduction of the word, suicide. The biggest factor for approval has been a person’s person trust in

various institutions [ CITATION Vilpert20 \l 1033 ]. Those who trusted their relatives, healthcare

providers, and legal system were far more likely to hold a positive attitude toward AS while those who

put their trust in religious institutions were more likely to be opposed to AS. This raises the question,
how much should this decision be based on public opinion and how much should it be based on studies

and hard data.

Works Cited
Brazier, Y. "What are euthanasia and assisted suicide?". Medical News Today, 17 December 2018.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/182951 Accessed on June 21, 2020.

Brenan, M. "Americans' Strong Support for Euthanasia Persists". Gallup, 31 May 2018.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/235145/americans-strong-support-euthanasia-persists.aspx
Accessed on June 21, 2020.

Pereira, J. "Legalizing euthanasia or assisted suicide: the illusion of safeguards and controls". Current
Oncology, 18 April 2011.
https://www.current-oncology.com/index.php/oncology/article/view/883/618 Accessed on
June 21, 2020.

Vilpert, S. "Associations of end-of-life preferences and trust in institutions with public support for assisted
suicide evidence from nationally representative survey data of older adults in Switzerland". PLoS
ONE, 23 April 2020. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/authors?
id=10.1371/journal.pone.0232109 Accessed on June 21, 2020.