Assisted Suicide Pros And Cons

The topic of assisted suicide and its benefits versus its cons is an ongoing debate that initially started after Oregon passed the Death with Dignity Act in 1997. The Death with Dignity act states that terminally-ill patients are able to end their lives with lethal medications prescribed by a physician. Oregon is one of the only six out of fifty states that have made physician assisted suicide legal. There are many pros and cons associated with assisted suicide, such as the patient is relieved from discomfort but they die prematurely. However, many patients feel that dying prematurely is the only way to end their pain. That being said, I believe assisted suicide is worth the personal costs because it ends suffering, lessons grief for loved ones, and retains the patient’s dignity.
There is over 1.7 million people receiving hospice care in America, and the number continues to increase each year.
The people in hospice care usually are diagnosed with terminal diseases, cancer, dementia, or other fatal conditions. The quality of life for these patients tends to continuously decline the longer they remain in hospice care. Not all patients in hospice care want assisted suicide but there are many that feel it’s the only way to end their pain. The nurses and doctors of these patients spend time cleaning patients, helping them do basic everyday tasks that they aren’t able to do themselves, and constantly trying to keep them alive. Whereas these health care providers could be spending their time trying to save a healthy patient that has a chance of living.
One of the many reasons people oppose physician assisted suicide is because it violates the doctor’s Hippocratic oath. Yet, the Hippocratic oath has no legal binding and is based off of centuries’ old logic. It is not practical in today’s society and in the case of physician assisted suicide. Another reason people argue against it is that the doctors and families may give
up

easier when people are given the choice of assisted suicide. However, in the states that physician assisted suicide is legal, the patient must have a life span of less than six months to live and by that point, many patients have already given up themselves. When given the option of assisted suicide, patients can “die knowing it was their choice” and end their pain and suffering peacefully surrounded by the people they love. To conclude, the pros of assisted suicide outweigh the cons that come after. In many states doctors are forced to continue giving terminally ill patients, who no longer want to live, care because of an oath they took when they became doctors, even if the oath has no legal attachments to it. The patients requesting for physician assisted suicide tend to have life threatening and fatal illnesses or diseases and live in constant pain. They usually give up far before their families and doctors do. If these patients are given the option of assisted suicide and chose to do so, it lessons the grief of their family, ends their pain, and allows them to die with their dignity.