Argumentative Essay: The Ethics Of Assisted Suicide

Assisted suicide is a very controversial topic. Some people believe it is morally wrong to end someone’s life, while others think that if someone is terminally ill and suffering, they should be given the option to die on their own terms. The Death with Dignity Act is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1997 in Oregon; soon Washington and Vermont followed after, and now California has passed this law but it still has not went into effect. This is a movement that offers patients the right to die with dignity rather than allowing the illness to kill them slowly, and painfully. More specifically it gives them the freedom to an option. It can be from either physician assisted suicide or euthanasia. Although both words are used interchangeably

According to Ira Byock author of “Doctor-Assisted Suicide Is Unethical and Dangerous” she suggests that, “When doctor-induced death becomes an accepted response to the suffering of the dying people, logical extensions grease the slippery slope.” (Byock, 2014). If the practice of assisted suicide became more pronounced, Ira believes that instead of these doctors doing everything to the best of their ability to help their patient they might choose to give them the option of death with dignity. The patient may be terminally ill, but it is still never okay for the doctor to just give up simply because assisted suicide is “easier”. This law promotes the idea that the doctor and families can give up on recovery earlier than the patient’s time. This can give doctors too much power. There may also be pressure from insurance companies and the government on these doctors for them to take this road rather than sustaining the life of their patient. Also people who have religious beliefs can be completely against this because they believe that our lives are a gift

It is not fair for a person to have to move to a new state simply because of their condition, it is time consuming and have to change their whole life and become a resident of the state before they can be eligible for the drug. In “the right to death with dignity at 29” by Brittany Maynard she describes in detail about how once she discovered her illness and realized there was no cure it took her and her family a while to finally decide that physician assisted suicide was the only way for Brittany not to suffer, then she mentions that she had to move all the way to Oregon, become a resident and go to a few different changes so that she would be able to qualify for the act. She says “I would not tell anyone else that he or she should choose death with dignity. My question is who has the right to tell me that I don’t deserve this choice? That I deserve to suffer for weeks or months in tremendous amounts of physical and emotional pain? Why should anyone have the right to make that choice for me?” (Maynard, 2014). I believe this serves as a reminder to us that the Death with Dignity Act gives everyone that is ill a choice. Brittany