Should They Have The Right?
In recent years, the debate over the question of whether terminally ill people should have the legal right to obtain a physician’s help in ending their lives has intensified. People believe that mentally ill patients should have the right to seek a physician’s assistance to bring about an end to their lives. However, assisted suicide has not been prohibited or conceded by law in approximately every state. Over twenty state legislatures have considered and defeated similar laws.
Respected medical professionals occupy positions on both sides of this debate. Like the controversy over abortion, this debate is emotionally charged, with morality, medical ethics, and religion all playing a role. Both opponents and proponents of assisted suicide believe their position is the most compassionate and morally correct. Should mentally competent, terminally ill people have the right to seek a physician’s assistance in this matter? A terminally ill individual should have the privilege to decide how and when to surrender the struggle for their own existence.
Terminally ill people should have the right to die with dignity” and avoid a prolonged death in which they may experience excruciating pain, heavy medication, and complete dependence on others for daily tasks. People are anxious about this type of suffering and helplessness that corresponds with this type of death and, if given the chance, would prefer not to endure this pain. Therefore, assisted suicide must be legalized. If a person’s life has deteriorated to the point of misery, then no government or medical facility should force that person to go on living in misery. There is a minute difference between the right to refuse treatment to continue life and the right to obtain medication to terminate life.
Supporters say that legal assisted suicide is a compassionate response to dying people who want to know that they can choose a death that they feel is dignified. Many physicians already help their terminally ill patients to die by prescribing legal drugs when asked to do so. Bearing in mind that this practice is recurrent, it should be legalized and regulated. Physicians can be given guidelines to follow to ensure that safeguards are implemented.
Those against assisted suicide argue that its legalization would have disastrous consequences for patients. How can this be so? Should individuals actually be made to suffer to the point of experiencing embarrassment for being dependent? Should they be required to endure extreme pain until their demise? Nobody would wish to endure such agony. The issue of assisted suicide should not be controversial. Nobody desires to experience the pain of life-threatening illness, and they should not be required to tolerate it when there is only a questionable amount of time left. The emotional anguish caused for loved ones should also be considered. When there is nothing to look forward to, they stand by and watch as their loved one gradually fades away.
Loved ones should be able to advance and establish their own grieving process. Instead, they often go through this grueling process more than once. They begin the initial grieving process as soon as their loved one is diagnosed with a terminal illness. In addition, they begin the grieving process for a second time once they have witnessed their loved one pass. Individuals should have the privilege to choose whether they want to undergo pain for the remainder of their existence.
If they desire, he or she should not have to endure the agony that goes along with the medical condition in which they have been forced to subsist. When terminally ill patients are given medication to cease their pain, they are often given so much medication that they become disoriented. Individuals should not be required to undergo this type of experience. People who are opposed to assisted suicide have not experienced the loss of someone with a terminal illness. Terminally ill patients have a limited amount of time to reside in this world, and this time is often not in good health. They can become very distraught under the medication that they are given, and when not given medication, they can endure serious pain.
Individuals should not be forced to endure pain of this enormity. Nobody should be required to suffer from a terminal illness when there are other opportunities for them to explore. There are many things in life that individuals take for granted, yet it is not okay for us to sit and watch as the people we love suffer.
