Imagine a world where you are in constant pain. You are only removed from this pain caused by your illness. You can’t eat, drink, sleep, move, or even take care yourself. You are dependent on the nurse hat walks in on you every once in a while to check to see that you are still breathing. Not being able to be independent and constantly worry about your well being with others isn’t usually ideal for an everyday life. To some, this may be a nightmare, but to others assisted suicide would be an option. Assisted suicide has stirred up countless debates on whether this is a foundational human right or not. Where the two sides of this debate come together is in the question of whether assisted suicide is a right to die or a right to kill.
Do we have the “right to die”? This question has been a controversial topic among patients, religious preachers, and the general public. One side of the argument debates that people have the right to end their life however and whenever they wish. Nevertheless, the otherside disagrees, saying that assisted suicide is murder and goes against religious beliefs and ethical reasoning. My mom is a nurse so she experienced many patients and families having to choose between life and death. Growing up, I have been told all different but quite similar stories about what families went through every time assisted suicide was an option for them, according to my mom. Many of the patients wanted to go but many of their family mem believed it was suicide or murder because of religion or ethical beliefs. Because this went against what these families believed in, they would keep the patient breathing. Listening to these stores for almost 14 years now it gets pretty tiring and frustrating. I am majoring in nursing and this has always been my passion so I have volunteered in hospitals to gain experience and I have also experienced this situation plenty of times. It has been effortless but at the same time challenging have to see these patients and their families make these decisions; on the other hand, my family is very religious and over time we have had our arguments on this topic of assisted suicide in hospitals, for that reason this gives me the worries and different viewpoints of the opposing side of assisted suicide.
When a person is oppressed by a fatal disease, severe handicap or crippling deformity, and their life seems worse than death, it makes no sense for the law to force them to life through unnecessary and excruciating pain. They should be given the option of assited sucide Assisted suicide is a more humane way to end someone’s life and has its benefits than it is to forcefully keep them alive.
Everyone deserves to end their life as they wish especially considering that the ill are the ones suffering, no us. Assisted suicide goes as far back as the 15th and 17th centuries. After the Hippocratic Oath was interpreted in the ancient Greeks and Romans had supported assisted suicide. According to History of Euthanasia, a website that is dedicated for the history of this topic says that the first bill for euthanasia was drafted in Ohio 1906. Life Resources Trust, a website that gives information of life related issues, says assisted suicide was not illegal in the Roman and Greek civilizations because they had believed a person has the right to want to live or not under their circumstances. Assisted suicide is described by the Oxford Dictionary as, “Affected with the assistance of another person, especially the taking of lethal drugs provided by a doctor for the purpose by a patient suffering from a terminal illness or incurable condition.” This definition gives an example the main benefit that assisted suicide has on its patients rather than a detriment it could have.
Everyone deserves the right to end their life as thy wish especially considering they are the ones suffering. Everybody has the moral right to choose on what they want to do with their lives as long as it is doing no harm to others. The right to end one’s life is a part of free choice. Those who are ill and choose to die by assisted suicide have the right to die with dignity and that is their choice. Therefore, should be a respected choice when choosing the right the to die. We have an obligation to relieve the suffering of our families and peers and respect their dignity. Someone taking high doses of medication results in a confused mind, an endless cycle of pain medication and confusion 24/7. This is our part to respect their needs to end their suffering. Lieberson, the author of Treatment of Pain and Suffering in the Terminally Ill, explains how many do not understand the suffering terminally ill patients are going through. Many of their loved ones want to just be able to see them even though they are not the same person but do not comprehend that the reason they want their lives to end because they suffer with dignity rather than suffering. Compassion demands that we comply and cooperate.
My mom’s best friend Patricia is 28 years old, and diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy at the age of three. Patricia has three siblings, two of which have passed from the same diagnosis at the ages of twelve and seventeen. Everyday is a struggle for Patricia, her parents overwhelmed financially, emotionally and physically. Patricia fears the day she will suffocate to death as her two siblings did. As painful as it would be for us to lose Patricia, if she chose the option of assisted suicide we would support her decision to end her suffering now with dignity, rather than a tortuous death which disease will ultimately accomplish.
Keeping a terminally ill patient alive costs more than it would be to support their decision with assisted suicide. It sounds in-humane to measure a person’s life in dollars but keeping terminally ill patients alive costs more than putting them to rest. Keeping a terminally ill patient alive costs from $50,000-$100,000, whereas lethal prescriptions cost a merely $35-$45 according to the Disability Rights Commission. Bob DeMarco, the founder of Alzheimer's Reading Room, a website that gives only expert information for Alzheimer's and dementia communities, write about an older woman named Marcia Klish. Marcia Klish is a 71 year old woman who is constantly trying to be saved by medical technology because she is suffering from complications of colon surgery. Marcia has been unconscious for about one week and her doctor says it costs up to $10,000 a day to maintain someone in the intensive unit. The legalization of assisted suicide will not only improve hospice care, but general hospital care and economics of the country. Saving the extra million could result in better pay for doctors, nurses and may even lower insurance premiums. Terminally ill patients are not only dealing with the mental and physical strain of their disease, but are lso guilt ridden on the financial aspect that their illness has imposed.
While those who are for assisted suicide see the act as an act of personal freedom, those who are against the act see assisted suicide against their religion. In the article “At the Hour of Death” it mentions “The states cannot legislate on the basis on religious faith but they can legislate on ethical grounds. They may reasonably conclude that the legalization of assisted suicide would dangerously corrode society’s moral fabric”. These opponents refer to the bible and Christian traditions understanding of suicide and murder as sins. Furthermore, many religious groups claim to hold all life as sacred and by taking a life, even though it may ease someone's pain, is not an acceptable act in the eyes of God or within Christian tradition. Like other debates, stem cell research in particular, the concept of life is God's gift and despite any political or social claims we have to personal freedoms, such freedoms are trumped by religious belief. According to Pew Research Center, have given their opposition to assisted suicide by arguing “the timing of death is a choice only God can makeThe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that assisted suicide violates God's commandments, but that members should not feel obligated to extend mortal life by means that are unreasonable." It is immoral and against God’s word to torture a person, so why torture a patient by forcing them to live.
Furthermore, opponents of assisted suicide believe it is an act against the Hippocratic Oath. According to MedicineNet, the medical definition of the Hippocratic oath states that it is, “one of the oldest binding documents in history, the Oath written by Hippocrates is still held sacred by physicians: to treat the ill to the best of one's ability, to preserve a patient's privacy, to teach the secrets of medicine to the next generation, and so on.” Today, the Hippocratic Oath is seen as the single phrase, “First do no harm”, so the opponents believe that assisted suicide, according to ProCon, prohibits the killing of a human being, just as it forbids any aid in suicide. This is saying that assisted suicide is killing a human being directly even if it is with consent. By doing so, doctors and nurses are willingly killing these terminally ill patients but they must reject because it is causing harm to one another. But this is not so. Doctors and nurses are simply meeting the patients needs as is practiced. Surely, we are doing harm by prolonging the life of a terminally ill patient. Assisted suicide does not kill the body, but it ultimately takes away one’s suffering.
Not everyone believes that assisted suicide is an act of assisting people with their death in order to end their suffering but see it as an act of choice between the patient and the doctor. One of the main reasons is those who are against assisted suicide believe that the choice of assisted suicide is an illusion. For example, a third party may be allowed to be given the lethal prescription to assist the patients suicide even without the patient's consent. There would be no accountability for them doing so. According to the website Focus On the Family, it states that laws require consent to get the actual lethal prescription but no consent at the actual time of death. This shows a difference in which who actually has the power to decide when death occurs for the patient. So this explains that assisted suicide is not an autonomous act because it does require the assistance of someone else. So there is no choice that those who support assisted suicide claim to be.
Despite the reasoning on why assisted suicide can be seen more as a right than a wrong, there are still those believe assisted suicide can be avoided with proper hospice care. Those against assisted suicide believe there is no need to seek assisted suicide when there is proper hospice care to guide the patient through their illness. The World Health Organization says “palliative care affirms life and regards dying as a normal process; it neither hastens nor postpones death; it provides relief from pain and suffering; it integrates the physiological and spiritual aspects of the patient.” Although the opposing side might believe that there is no reason to go towards assisted suicide, even with improved access to quality end of life care, there will still be rare cases of persistent and untreatable suffering. Oregon’s Public Health Division shows the most recent statistics from Oregon (2014), where assisted suicide is legal, show that 93 percent of patients who opted for assisted suicide was on hospice. This suggests that hospice and palliative care aren’t always sufficient to treat severe suffering.
Assisted suicide gives a terminally ill patient the choice to end their life peacefully. The right to assisted suicide would allow the patient to die with dignity, free their families from financial burden, and would ultimately save the patient from long lasting pain. Giving terminally ill patients the right and choice to end their insufferable pain and illness gives the patient the independence to end this chapter of their life.