Essay On Assisted Suicide

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There are many people in this world who feel they have a justifiable reason to end their lives but are not able to do it by themselves for physical, mental, or religious reason. However, there is a procedure called Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS) where a doctor prescribes a lethal dose of a medication that kills the patient in the most humane way possible. This procedure differs from others, such as euthanasia —the act if deliberately ending a person’s life to relieve suffering —, because it is the patient who decides when to take the medication and end his life. There are many controversial debates on whether assisted suicide is right or wrong and consequently whether it should be legal. Opponents of this medical procedure, especially those with strong religious believes, maintain that regardless of one’s health condition people should never decide when to end their lives. But this controversy raises a question: who is the owner of an individual’s life? Is it the government? Is it god? Or is it the person who is struggling and therefore it should be this person’s legal right to decide when and how to give up its life? There is many views on this question based ethics, religion ---

It might be argued by people who are against assisted suicide that the stress a serious illness, like cancer, produces on a person might deteriorate his/her perspective on life. In fact, many studies (Pirl, 2004) show that most patients face some degree of depression, anxiety and fear when cancer becomes part of their lives. Other illnesses like Alzheimer’s disease affect directly people’s mind and their ability to think. Those against PAS suggest that people with these types of illnesses might not have enough reasoning ability to make a logical...

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...t suicide professional who help their patients will be sued for murder under more laws. This is why, in order to protect the individual right patients have, there must be a law allowing doctors to assist their patients to achieve a peaceful death.
To many, a law allowing people to end their lives, may be uncomfortable. Assisted suicide is a controversial measure to aid the suffering of terminally ill patients. But what one must analyze is that the only ones who can’t determine when is worth living are the suffering patients. Society must, under universal laws, guaranteed every individual’s free will despite religion or race as long as this does not affect the lives of others. The most humane way to accomplish this is by allowing an expert assist those who want to end their life and at least help them accomplish their will in a secure and controlled environment.

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