Physician-Assisted Suicide, Should It Be Legal?

Physician-Assisted Suicide, Should it be Legal?
David Reynolds
PHI 103
Elisa Paik
June 3, 2013

Physician-Assisted Suicide, Should it be Legal?
Physician-assisted suicide (PAS), also known as euthanasia, remains to be a debate for many people. “Proponents of PAS declare that patients have a right to receive aid to hasten their deaths. In contrast, opponents argue that it violates the fundamental physician duty to protect human life” (Friend, 2011, p. 110). Many people feel that it is morally wrong because it is murder, while others see Physician-assisted suicide as a simple solution. Physician-assisted suicide is a compassionate response to patients that are suffering. The benefits and why physician-assisted suicide should be made legal will be discussed.
Physician-assisted suicide is when a person is terminally ill that wants to die and wants a physician to help them. Friend defines physician-assisted suicide as “the voluntary ending of one’s life primarily by taking a lethal substance (usually a barbiturate) prescribed by a physician” (2011, p. 110). Why is it wrong for a patient to ask for help ending their own live sooner rather than continuing to live with the pain?
A person who is terminally ill should have the right to make their own decision on whether or not they want to participate in Physician-assisted suicide. According to Wellman, “the right would be possessed by all and only those patients who are either enduring intolerable unbelievable suffering or who are terminally ill” (2003, p. 20). If a person is terminally ill or living with pain, they have the right to ask a medical professional to help them end their pain. Why should they have to suffer any longer? People who are terminally ill do not want to continue to suffer knowing their days are numbered. Many patients feel if they want to die and it is legal for a doctor to help them die with dignity, why not let them.
Besides, knowing he or she may die or in unbearable pain, a patient no...