The Future Os Assisted Suicide

The Future Os Assisted Suicide

The Future of Assisted Suicide

Sharon Monahan

Axia College of University of Phoenix

The Future of Assisted Suicide
The subject of assisted suicide is a virtual minefield of emotion. Laws worldwide concerning assisted suicide, if they exist at all, are complicated and range from making it a crime to allowing it with conditions. Because of the sensitivity of the subject, both morally and ethically, it is complex to legislate and control. Many people feel it is an individual right to choose how one lives and dies without legal ramifications. Dying with dignity is an important consideration for many people who are terminally ill or facing a life of physical decline. Ending a life is seen as a viable option by many, before becoming a financial or emotional burden on family members, having to live with the humiliation of relying on others to exist or lingering with no quality of life. Finding out that their physician cannot help, by law, or will not help, because of ethics is a surprise and has led to many law suits, appeals and headlines. Even though suicide is no longer a crime, anyone obtaining the means to help another commit suicide can be held responsible according to most criminal codes around the world. Though having the choice to end one’s life is gaining favor all over the world according to many opinion polls, in order for laws to be changed to reflect this and upheld in actual voting, terms need to be universally defined and accepted and protocols need to be adopted that establish under what circumstances, by what means, and who will administer it (FinalExit.org, 2003).
When analyzing the pros and cons surrounding this issue, one has to consider the various defined means of assisted suicide. We should start with euthanasia. This is a basic idea defined by Merriam Webster as “the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals (as persons or domestic animals) in a relatively painless way...

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