Assisted Suicide Research Paper

741 Words2 Pages

Assisted Suicide: Legal or Illegal?

Picture a close family member suffering from a terminal illness. They are struggling through their disease, and it is obvious that they are not getting any better. Instead of letting them die from this illness, the doctor offers to put them down in their sleep. They decide to take the doctor’s offer. When a person is extremely weak and suffering from a terminal illness, they should be given the right to end their own lives via assisted suicide. A person shouldn’t *should not have to live out the rest of their already shortened life knowing that they are slowly wasting away. Assisted suicide should be a legal practice in every state. By defining the importance of being given the choice to request assisted suicide, one will be persuaded to believe that it is indeed beneficial to not only the patient but said patient’s family. …show more content…

Determining whether it should be legal or illegal will undoubtedly change the ways of medical practice. The method of assisted suicide varies in different areas of the U.S., but it mainly involves a prescription from a licensed physician approved by the state in which the patient is a resident ('Physician-Assisted Suicide Fast Facts’, 2015) Throughout the years, there have been people who supported the idea that patients should be given the right to request euthanasia, and there’ve *there have been people who disagree. Those who believe that assisted suicide should be legal argue that it is more beneficial than harmful in terms of health and wellness. George G. Annas states that “In limited circumstances, such as those enumerated in Oregon's Death with Dignity statute, the act is a compassionate means of alleviating suffering.” (Annas, 683) Once people start to view assisted suicide as something that can potentially help someone, the controversial subject will begin to be shown in a better

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