Persuasive Essay On Assisted Suicide

Assisted Suicide

Today assisted suicide is no longer illegal. However, it is forbidden in forty-five of fifty states. One of the only legislation explicitly allowing assisted suicide is Oregon's Death with Dignity act, which allows doctors and physicians to assist terminally ill patients to end their own lives. I believe that assisted suicide should be permitted in at least half of the states because I don’t think assisted suicide is bad, while other people misunderstand it. Many people see suicide or assisted suicide as instinctive, they then think that it would be an act of freedom and assume there are no legal prohibitions. To clarify this topic we will first define assisted suicide and under what circumstances it should be practiced. Then discuss the history of assisted suicide and finally how it has evolved into today.

First, lets define assisted suicide. According to medicinenet.com assisted suicide is the voluntary termination of a persons life by administration of a lethal substance with the assistance of a physician.

Assisted suicide is the practice of providing a terminally ill patient with a prescription to use to end his or her own life.
Assistedsuicide.org states that assisted suicide is only practiced in certain states. Assisted suicide is only available to terminally ill patients. So a person with Medulloblastoma brain cancer or any other incurable disease, could have the option to do this in certain states. On November third of 2014, Emily Brone, states in her article, that there are only five states that practice assisted suicide. Oregon in 1997, Washington and Montana in 2008, Vermont in 2013, and New Mexico in 2014.
Sandra Norman-Eady, Chief attorney at Oregon’s Health Department, states that most patients requesting an assisted suicide had some form of terminal cancer and had the fear of losing autonomy as their main reason for wanting to end their lives.
Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act allows terminally ill patients to obtain and use prescriptions from their physicians for self administered, lethal medications to end one's life. This act is referred to as “physician-assisted suicide” because it allows people to end their lives with prescribed medications for that purpose. To request a physician-assisted suicide, the Death with Dignity Act requires that the patient must be:
An adult (18 years or older)
An Oregon resident
Capable of making health care decisions, and
Must be diagnosed with a terminal illness that will lead to death within six months.
Wisconsinrighttolife.org, shares the assisted suicide case of Barbra Houck.

In January of 1999, Barbra Houck, age 71, was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, a progressive neurological disease. Almost immediately after her diagnosis, she call Peter Rasumussen, an oncologist and supporter of physician-assisted suicide. She requested a lethal prescription to end her life. He declined because she had more than six months to live. She then contacted him again in March and he wrote the prescription. He was present April tenth, the day she chose to die. He emptied ninety capsules into a bowl of chocolate pudding and her two sons fed it to her. Rasmussen stayed for two hours. She died twelve hours later of ingestion of the lethal drug. This is one example of few legal assisted suicide cases. Now that we have defined assisted suicide and under what circumstances it should be practiced we can discuss the history of assisted

suicide.
According to Procon.org, assisted suicide was first practiced in ancient Greece and Rome, as far back as 500 B.C. Ancient Greeks and Romans did not see value of an individual human life, so many physicians performed frequent abortions, as well as voluntary and involuntary mercy killings. Although, the Hippocratic Oath prohibited ancient Greeks and Romans from poisoning anybody even if it was asked for, but few ancient Greeks and Romans faithfully followed this Oath.
During the twelfth throughout the fifteenth century the Christians and Jews reinforced the Hippocratic Oath because they believed that a human life was a form of trust from God. By the seventeenth century, suicide and assisted suicide is prohibited in the American Colonies. Then in the late eighteenth century, because of the various religions starting with the Great Awakening of the mid 1700’s, prevented Secularists and Agnostics on either side of the Atlantic Ocean from supporting assisted suicide.
Then in the early 1800’s the first U.S. state outlawed assisted suicide in New York on December 10, 1828. During the 1870’s, Samuel Williams begins to publicly advocate using morphine and other drugs for assisted suicide. During this time analgesia was well established, Samuel Williams, who was not a doctor, began to use these pain relievers not only to relieve pain, but to intentionally end a persons life.
In the 1930’s, public support for assisted suicide increases as the U.S. goes through the great depression. In 1937, Nebraska Senator, John Comstock introduces legislation called the Voluntary Euthanasia Act. It was never voted on, but demonstrated an interest in legislating assisted suicide.
By 1950, the World Medical Association condemns assisted suicide. However, in 1952, the United Nations amend the Declaration of Human Rights to include assisted suicide. Finally in 1972, the U.S. senate holds the first national hearings on assisted suicide. The SCA holds the first national hearings on the Death with Dignity are entitled.
The assisted suicide debate continues to gain support in 1987, California becomes the first major public body to support the debate. During the early 1990’s, the public opinion surveys shows that more than half of Americans support physician assisted suicide. In October 1997, Oregon’s Death with Dignity act is passed and is declared the first state to allow the practice of assisted suicide. Now that we know some background knowledge on assisted suicide we can finally see how assisted suicide has evolved into today.
Starting in 2000, different countries around the world start legalizing assisted suicide. According to ProCon. org, in the United States, bills are being passed to allow practice of assisted suicide in the states. On November fourth in 2008, Washington’s Death with Dignity Act is passed, making Washington the second U.S. states to legalize assisted suicide after Oregon. About a month later on December fifth, Montana also legalized assisted suicide. Looking ahead a few years to 2013, Vermont becomes the fourth states to allow assisted suicide. And in 2014, New Mexico, assisted suicide bill is passed by Attorney General, Gary King.
Today I hope I helped you understand this topic by defining what assisted suicide is, then discussing the history of assisted suicide, and how it has evolved into today. If I had a terminally ill family member or friend who asked to die because all that would happen to them anyways is to continue to get worse and suffer through treatments and procedures that wouldn’t change the fact that their disease or condition is fatal, I would support their decision. I’d rather have someone who is important to me die peacefully when they are ready, rather than having them have a natural death that could be painful.