The Right to Commit Suicide

The right to die is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as, “pertaining to, expressing, or advocating the right to refuse extraordinary measures intended to prolong someone's life when they are terminally ill or comatose” (Definition). There has been a constant debate for over a century regarding the controversial right to die topic. Many people have different views and plenty of questions arise when dealing with such a sensitive subject. Should we be given the right to commit suicide with the help of a physician? Should we be able to refuse treatments and procedures at our own will? These questions are the same questions that have been up for debate for years. These are the questions that have sent many people to court throughout these past years. Those are the people that have set precedents, changed laws and have been a part of historic cases.
There are a couple different ways a person can go about killing themselves. Some can be done legally and others illegally. Those ways are euthanasia which have different forms and physician assisted suicide. Euthanasia consists of passive and active euthanasia and involuntary, voluntary and non-voluntary euthanasia. Most times they can be combined to form types such as voluntary passive euthanasia. Forms of Euthanasia defines these different types of euthanasia as follow. Active euthanasia is described as another person causing the death of a patient. An example of this would be giving a patient enough painkillers to overdose and kill themselves. Passive euthanasia is another type which is legal but has drawn a lot of controversy. It can be defined as withholding and withdrawing from treatments. Involuntary euthanasia is the killing of a patient whose wishes are to stay alive. An ...

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...oing no harm, would be in violation by doctors if they assisted in the suicide of a patient (Marinis).
Many people wonder if we as citizens have the right to die. There are some legal and illegal ways to go about doing so. Euthanasia is by law illegal in the United States. However, there are some states that have legalized physician assisted suicide. As we wait for more states to follow the steps of the other states, we wonder why they have not done so already. There have been many famous cases that occurred over the past couple decades that given states reason to legalize physician assisted suicide. Nonetheless, there are still the pros and cons to why physician assisted suicide should be legal or illegal. It is safe to say that the establishment of living wills, the patient bill of rights and natural death laws have allowed the U.S. to come a long way since 1906.