Should Assisted Suicide be Legal?
Jennifer Schwindenhammer
PHI 103
Tim Serey
June 3, 2007
Assisted Suicide
Everyone reaches a time in ones life where they will have to face the cold, hard facts about death. It may be a family member who is passing away, or themselves. Death is a natural part of life. But there may be a time that death does not come quickly. Patients with terminal illness may suffer horribly, with no immediate end in sight. These patients or their families should have the right to make a life ending decision without the fear of legal ramifications.
Physician assisted suicide should be legal. Patients, with the help of their physicians, should be able to decide if they want to end their own life. Only that person knows what kind of pain and suffering they are enduring. A court or judge cannot determine the level of pain and suffering a patient feels. They cannot determine if a patients’ quality of life has diminished. The only person who knows these things is the patient.
As U.S. citizens, we have many rights under the Constitution. We have the right to bear arms, the right to free speech and the right to choose our own religion. Yet, we do not have the right to choose to end our own life. It makes little sense, in a society where we allow people to make decisions on whether or not to terminate a pregnancy, that we would not allow physicians and patients to make a crucial decision about ending a patients’ life. The decision to end our own lives is an example of personal freedom. We should be able to control the circumstances and timing of our own death.
With proper controls and guidelines, assisted suicide would help terminally ill patients end their life with dignity. Medical technology today keeps terminally ill patients alive longer, but with no quality of life. As their loved ones lie in a hospital bed, unable to function normally, families are burdened with caring for them and paying for...