Arguments Against Assisted Suicide

Physician assisted suicide is an issue that has been debated for many years. Many people argue that people have the right to die by any means possible while others argue that human life should be precious and should be protected at all cost. While that is true that doesn't mean you can force someone to stay alive. Do you believe that physician assisted suicide should be legal for the terminally ill?

Over the last few years there has been great debates over rather or not physician Assisted Suicide should be legal or not. Physician assisted suicide is a catalyst to the inevitable and should be legalized nationwide and regulated by the Government. Issues like this are usually looked at with an emotional standpoint instead of a logical one. The level of controversy shadows that of John Steinbeck’s novel of Mice and Men because George kills Lennie out of mercy, George understands that Lennie’s quality of life was not high. While people can understand the novel it seems to be difficult for them to understand the situation at hand. Most people especially family members do not understand because they are in denial or being selfish with the parent's

A patient who has a terminal illness suffer tremendously every day. Since there is no cure for any terminal illness, doctors ease the patient's pain by prescribing them pain medication up to their final days. If it is acceptable for a beloved pet to be put euthanized, how is it any different for a terminally ill patient to end their life by physician-assisted suicide? Currently, terminally ill patients are fighting for their right to die. There is a hand full of states that have passed the law that allows terminally ill adult patients, who have six months to live, to end their lives by euthanasia or better known as physician-assisted suicide. Physician-assisted suicide is when a doctor performs a patient a lethal amount of substances into a patient, to end their life. The state of Virginia

When it comes to end of life care, there are several options that can be discussed between a patient, their family, and the physician. Whether the patient expresses a desire to fight their disease and escalate care to the fullest extent, or if the patient would prefer to deny treatment and keep themselves comfortable in their last days, options exist. But what about those that are undeniably suffering from a terminal illness that is causing them immense amounts of pain that cannot be controlled strictly with palliative measures and wish to end their own life, by their own hands? Currently, there is no federally approved option

The topic of discussion is one of the most controversial topics in the last decade physician-assisted suicide. This occurs when a physician assists a terminally ill or disabled person to take their own life. Assisting either by giving the physical means or instructions on what method to use to commit suicide with. There are many moral and ethical arguments; some are based on religious beliefs while others are based on the rules of medical ethics. It can be argued that the terminally ill and the disabled should not be forbidden from taking their own lives. It goes against all regularly accepted laws of medical ethics for a doctor to assist in the suicide of a patient. Physicians pledge to not harm patients (Hippocratic Oath).

On the positive side of assisted suicide, it is strongly believed that the right to assisted suicide allows the terminally ill to have a clean and fair death. No one wants to live with pain and sorrow. From their perspective, doctor's help the suffering and terminally ill to die when they choose is nothing wrong. From what they had argued, the First Amendment to the United States Constitution allows people the right to freedom of speech, press, petition, religion. With this logic, it would be reasonable to believe that you are allowed to have the right to die. The right to assisted suicide can help the patients with the terminally ill to release from pain and suffering, reduce the damaging financial effects of hospital care on their families, and preserve the individual right of people to determine their own fate.

Earlier in 2015, this issue received nation attention when a 29 year old terminally ill women made the chose to die on her own terms. Having no cure for the disease, a disease that would continue to cause her great pain and discomfort as the disease progressed, she along with the help of her family made the decision that when the time came she would take her life under medical supervision. She argued that it would be unfair and devastating for her family to watch her suffer while medicine prolonged her life. She argued that it was unfair of laws in the state she resided that would require she suffer and endure pain instead of supporting assisted suicide. “Advances

A conflicting question hospital patients often ask themselves when faced with terminal illness is: Is it worth living out the rest of my life? This question is an extremely controversial topic when it comes to deciphering the correct answer and has arguments in favor and against assisted suicide. Allen Roberts and Scott Redd, doctor and theologian, are strongly against this ideology and believe it is morally incorrect to allow physicians to give the independence of such an important decision to terminally ill individuals.

J.K. Rowling once stated, “Every human life is worth the same, and worth saving” however, when it comes to suicide we seem to forget that everyone deserves to live (Good Reads). For example, if someone with depression were to take their own life due to the mental constraints they were under our society would speak out against suicide and try to prevent this from happening in others lives. If suicide is so bad that we would take a stand against it, then why do we support physician assisted suicide and want it to be legalized in all fifty states across the country? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary suicide is defined as “the act or an instance of taking one’s own life voluntarily and intentionally especially by a person of years of

The equal protection argument for allowing assisted suicide was a challenge against New York law that only let people who were ill and who decided to sustain from life support were allowed to do so, thus that infringed on the equal protection clause right of people who were also ill and who decided to rush to their death but by the administering of a drug were not allowed to do so. According to equal protection laws the state won’t deny anyone within the jurisdiction equal protection of the laws. The latter’s right of equal protection was infringed upon and by putting the equal protection clause into effect it would allow for assisted suicide.

Physician assisted suicide does not lead to abuses or down the hypothetical slope. Peter Rogatz, a physician, states that requesting someone to be taken off a ventilator is socially acceptable. What is the difference between assisted suicide and ending a ventilator? Does one have to be in coma or brain dead to allow him to die with dignity? These are the questions that patients and society are asking today. Rogatz asks these questions from a physician’s point of view and explains the pain that he has seen through suffering patient’s eyes. These questions alone are one factor that Rogatz is sickened by because he does not understand what in the world the difference should be between these two tragic events. The next point Rogatz explains is that people should see assisted suicide as a merciful end rather than killing. The word killing has such a strong meaning and that does not have any place in the right to die debate because killing is intentional without consent (134). Rogatz believes that the physicians who understand the plea for assisted suicide are doing good not harm. More often than not, the physicians responding to assisted suicide will handle the situation correctly. Rogatz does accept that there will be someone who will abuse this power, but that will not happen with everything physicians have as guidelines. According to Rogatz, physicians also have a strict criterion to even think about mentioning assisted suicide. The patients must qualify for assisted suicide. This factor alone also helps to eliminate abuses because physicians only can administer to a select number of terminally ill patients (134). Assisted suicide is not an act of murder and does not lead down a hypothetical slope.

“The terms “aid in dying,” “death with dignity,” and “patient directed dying” are merely euphemisms for the practice [of assisted suicide]. In fact, these terms are not recognized by the medical community and are simply used by suicide advocates to mask what they advocate.”(Harned, 2012, pp 513). However, the people who assist with suicide call it being compassionate. “The United States Supreme Court held in 1997[ruled] that there is no federal constitutional right to assisted suicide under the Due Process or Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.”(Harned, 2012, pp 513). “In 2011, the people of Idaho responded to pressure from advocates to “find” legal recognition of physician-assisted suicide within their law by enacting a new

In that case, the Court denied that the section 7 right to bodily control could trump the right to life and thereby justify assisted suicide. As the Court wrote, it was a common societal belief that "human life is sacred or inviolable," and therefore security of the person itself could not include a right to suicide; suicide would destroy life and thus be inherently harmful.

Unfortunately life as we know is expendable and it is even more unfortunate that many persons are forced to spend the last lap of their life in an agonizingly painful and hopeless state. If given the option many would choose to depart this life with dignity and no longer be a burden for their loved ones. Therefore against this premise, Senator Nelson, I propose the revision and amendment of the Florida statute 782.08 to permit euthanasia. According to flsenate.gov, this statute stipulates that “every person deliberately assisting another in the commission of self-murder shall be guilty of manslaughter, a felony of the second degree.” Though it doesn’t directly refer to euthanasia, it classes all acts of assisted suicide together and objectively

Assisted suicide is a topic that has ignited a severe debate due to the controversy that surrounds its implementation. Assisted suicide occurs when a patients expresses their intention to die and request a physician to assist them in the process. Some countries like Oregon, Canada, and Belgium have legalized the process terming it as an alternative to prolonged suffering for patients who are bound to die. Unlike euthanasia where a physician administers the process, assisted suicide requires that the patient voluntarily initiates and executes the process. Although there exists concession such a process is important to assist patients die without much suffering, there has emerged criticism on its risk of abuse and as an expression of medical