Dangers Of Assisted Suicide

Inherent Dangers of Physician Assisted Suicide

Today, there has been a considerable amount of debate going on, both among the public and politicians, about physician assisted suicide. In fact, assisted suicide has now become a legal act in some states such as Oregon, Washington, and Vermont. Despite the controversy between oppositionists and advocates, these states are failing to grasp the big picture and look deeper into the issue. States and countries that have now enacted the act of assisted suicide have undoubtedly seen the dangers inherent in legalizing such a law. The decision of allowing assisted suicide is one in which the interest of an individual cannot be separated from the interests of a society as whole because the death of person can often affect the lives of others often in ways, and to an extent, which cannot be foreseen. It is not merely a matter of autonomy. The dangers posed in allowing a patient to take his or her own life, range from untreated depression, to the deadly mix with our broken, profit driven health care system, to the slippery slope it will create. Although the legalization of assisted suicide strikes a great deal of people as a cause of support, upon closer inspection, there seems to be many reasons why legalization is a serious mistake.

To begin with, it is critical to understand that most patients who do request assisted suicide do not do so on the basis of unbearable pain or nausea but do so because of depression. Suicide advocates wrongfully claim that assisted suicide is needed for those who face, or fear, great pain.

However most experts in pain management claim that 95 to 98 percent of such pain can be relieved. Most if not all terminally i...

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...an assisted suicide shouldn’t be legal anywhere and where it is legal it can’t be controlled, despite the safeguards proposed by advocates. Countries that have legalized the act have seen a significant amount of consequences posed to patients that fall under the category of terminally ill. Though advocates believe that allowing a patient to decide to when their life ends is showing kindness and compassion, the interest of an individual shouldn’t be separated from the interests of our society as a whole. If we allow assisted suicide to remain legal it will only lead to an abuse of the system which will result in untreated depression, profit driven insurance companies denying life sustaining medicine to patients, and to a slippery slope. It is time we learn from these other states and countries and realize that assisted dying should stay illegal everywhere and always.