preview

Persuasive Essay On The Right To Die

Better Essays

“Americans are not entirely averse to suicide in cases of terminal illness. Currently six in ten Americans believe that a person has a right to end his or her own life if that person has an incurable disease” (Benson 267). It is obvious that most Americans can agree that assisted suicide is the final decision of the terminally ill patient. When it comes down to it, many terminal patients cannot make this decision, because they may live within a state where assisted suicide is illegal. So far, only seven states have made assisted suicide legal and one state has legal physician suicide by court ruling, while the rest still considers assisted suicide illegal. Even though some people do not approve of assisted suicide because of moral or ethical …show more content…

Most terminal patients do not want to continuously live their life in pain. In the book The Right to Die, Howard Bell, a political scientist with a specialization in constitutional law, mentions how, “A dying patient’s suffering is more than physical pain; there are also mental, emotional, social, and psychological infirmities, such as the loss of independence, the loss of sense of self-hood, and an intolerable quality of life, all incapacities that devastate the divinity of some dying patients” (21). Pain is the main reason terminal patients choose to end their lives. There are numerous ways that pain is expressed. Not being able to accomplish everyday chores on their own such as brushing their teeth, choosing when they want to go to sleep, or simply walking down the block increases pain that the terminal patients suffer from. Even terminal patients simply not being independent as they once were, can amplify the pain. There is no purpose to why terminal patients should have to endure life in pain when they no longer want to. When terminal patients realize that they can put an end to their pain, they are allowed to look forward to something in life. Terminal patients should be allowed to make the decision on when they want to permanently end their

Get Access