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Imagine a women suffering with ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease); a disease that robs a person of voluntary muscle control. ALS does not affect the mind, so the women would be fully aware of her physical inabilities. The disease would eventually prevent her from moving, talking, eating, and breathing without assistance. The disease would be progressive, unremitting, and merciless. (Robert Horn, "Assisted Suicide". 188) Shouldn't this woman be given the right to choose whether to go on with life or end it with dignity? The legalization of assisted suicide would give her the right to choose.
Assisted suicide is when someone (usually a doctor, relative, or close friend) provides the means to take his or her own life; the life-ending act under that person's guidance. (Webster's Dictionary) Assisted suicide has occurred for thousands of years. The ancient Greeks practiced assisted suicide as a way to preserve one's honor. Greeks and Romans believed that a good death was as important as a good life. However, for the past twenty-five years this practice has been viewed as a response to the progress of modern medicine. (Assisted Suicide, 6)
Since the beginning of the nineteenth century medical advancements, such as antibiotics and vaccines, have pro-longed life and eliminated deadly diseases. Until the twentieth century, many people had large families in the prospect that most of their children would die young. However, today we expect our children to live long past their childhood, into their seventies and eighties. (Walker, 6) Our ancestors would be astonished by the advancements in medicine and improved medical conditions. Hospitals are able to reproduce and replace almost all vital organs. We now have the technology to cheat death and live longer. (Walker, 8) However, these methods also lengthen the dying process and force patients to live in unnecessary pain. As people's lives become longer, so do the chances of developing diseases such as cancer, which may result in long, agonizing, and costly illnesses. "We have become victims of the health care system that our cultural values have created. The dying process has been transformed into a series of wrenching choices….Out of the apparently needless suffering of countless people has grown a strong movement towards patients' rights and natural death that is, death with minimum of medical intervention." (Paula Hendrick, in context magazine)
Assisted suicide is a method to end suffering and to die with dignity. The advances in technology allow people to live unnaturally, why shouldn't people have the right to die unnaturally too. (Walker, 7) Although pro-life supporters argue the legalization of assisted suicide would lead to doctor-patient abuse and will undermine the morals of society; assisted suicide is a civil and constitutional right and every terminally ill individual deserves the right to choose life or death.
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Individuals opposed to assisted suicide believe humans have no right to terminate their own lives. Christians deem that God gave them the gift of life and it's not theirs to dispose of. (Walker, 8) "Life is sacred because it is created by God for purpose, and that purpose comes to an end when you die." It's not for you to choose the moment at which you die." (Malcolm Muggeridge, "A Right to Die", 8) Christians see suicide as self-murder and a Mortal sin. They believe ending your own life is taking away God's purpose. However, aren't the machines and medicines that pro-long life also abolishing God's purpose? Moreover, not every individual practices the Christian religion and beliefs. Religion cannot be used as an argument against assisted suicide. The government has separated church from state.
Certain doctors and nurses believe performing assisted suicide breaks the Hippocratic oath. "I swear….that I will prescribe treatment to the best of my ability and judgment for the good of the sick, and never for a harmful or illicit purpose. I will give no poisonous drug, even if asked to nor make any such suggestion." (Hippocratic Oath) The Hippocratic oath doesn't address a patient living on machines or breathing through tubes. The oath was created before diseases such as Cancer and Aids. How can someone use the Hippocratic oath as an argument against assisted suicide, when the oath doesn't even address true suffering? As a patient is dying, how should a doctor act to guarantee the patient's best welfare? Should the doctor ignore the patient and force them to live through the pain and suffering or listen the patients plea and help them end their life?
Although several individuals agree doctors should be allowed to help end their patient's life, they assume if a doctor is given this right they may abuse his or her power. The slippery slope theory argues if assisted suicide is permitted, involuntary euthanasia will also become accepted. Involuntary euthanasia is taking someone's life without his or her permission. The anti-euthanasia lobby claims a change in the law would result in the annihilation of people who are considered too old or disabled. (Walker, 1) Protestors assume, once a doctor is provided authorization to end some ones life they will also shorten the lives of people who want to live longer. This argument is presuming doctors have no morals and control over their actions. Although there might be a minimal risk, it is up to the individual to choose whether the risk is worth taking. Moreover, if we didn't allow risk, there would be no medical treatments or technology. And if assisted suicide became legal in the United States proper laws would be created to prevent this from occurring.
Assisted suicide is legal in a few areas, which include the Netherlands, provinces in Australia, and Oregon. The Netherlands, rather than creating specific laws on assisted suicide, created a strict procedure doctors must follow. The guidelines demand that two doctors diagnose unbearable physical or mental pain and with a determinedly expressed longing to die. (Walker, 0) A doctor who fails to follow these guidelines will be fined thousands of dollars, put in jail, and his or her license will be revoked. This system of "checks and balances" prevents doctors from abusing the legalization of assisted suicide.
Although assisted suicide is illegal, Doctor Kevorkian helped relieve countless patients of insurmountable pain and suffering through assisted suicide. Doctor Kevorkian broke the law, but it was in the pursuit of justice, sought to challenge the morality of the government. His trial is similar to the "trial of the century", which prevented a biology teacher to teach Darwinism. (Andrew, "Problem of Death") The anti-evolutionists do not allow a man to choose how to think and the anti-euthanasia followers do not allow a man to choose how to live.
The freedoms of America are being abused, when an individual is not given the right to choose death. Living in a free country, we believe a man's life belongs to himself. But, if a man were suffering from an incurable disease, his life would no longer belong to him. The state would force him to live with unnecessary pain and give him no choice, but to live. The Declaration of Independence states an individual has the right to his own "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." This right entails freedom to choose whether your life is no longer worth living. "Just as freedom of speech includes the right to remain silent and the right to practice religion includes the right to be an atheist-so the right to live includes the right to decide to die. Freedom means the freedom to choose." (Andrew Bernstein, "Problems of Death", 56) As Americans we have the right to choose, no matter if we choose life or death.
Many people support-assisted suicide because it's comforting to know they have a choice to end their life if the suffering becomes too great. They fear losing control of not only their bodies but also what would happen to them in the medical system. Although many individuals would not opt for assisted suicide, they should have the choice. We have the right to deny unwanted medical treatment, but we don't have the right to die peacefully. Physicians are permitted to assist their terminally ill patients by disconnecting their life supporters or by prescribing medical treatments to ease their starvation. Yet, a doctor is prohibited to help a patient achieve a quick death, free of pain and agony.
Assisted suicide is a basic liberty. By denying a terminally ill person aid in dying we are forcing the individual to bear a limited, agonizing life that he or she has clearly rejected. We have taken control away from the individual and eliminated independence. Doctor Kevorkian believes assisted suicide is "the very essence of human autonomy, something that goes way beyond so-called right" (Assisted Suicide, 80) Without control of life and death we have no basic freedoms. Assisted suicide is a free right, whether you agree with it are not, every terminally ill individual deserves the privilege
The 14th amendment supports the right to assisted suicide. The fourteenth amendment says no one can be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote, "liberty interest in choosing the time and manner of one's own death. Being able to make this decision freely is essential to personal dignity and independence. " In the case of Roe vs. Wade abortion became legal. The courts agreed it was a private matter and the state should not interfere. (Yount, 4) The decision to ask a doctor to ends one life is equally as private as abortion. Assisted suicide is a private matter in which the state should not interfere.
Assisted suicide is the ultimate civil right; the right to die with dignity, in your own time and on your own terms. Denying death with dignity eliminates one's control over their life, yet individuals work their entire life to gain that power. A person's life belongs to them; they choose how they live and how they die. The legalization of assisted suicide would allow individuals to control their destiny and achieve the ultimate freedom.
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