Physician Assisted Suicide Research Paper

Physician-Assisted Suicide: Should It Be Legalized?
We have countless rights protected by the United States such as freedom of speech, due process of law, and freedom of religion to name a few. Most importantly, we have the right to life. In the opening of the Declaration of Independence, the very thing our country was founded upon, it is said, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” (The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription). We do not, however, have the right to die. We have no right to end our own life, particularly by way of physician-assisted suicide. Although
there are many arguments to take into consideration physician-assisted suicide should most certainly be legalized; nevertheless, it should not be taken lightly and a number of safeguards should be in place.
First, what we are talking about must be defined. Physician-assisted is where a doctor enables a terminally ill patient to end their own life. As an example, a doctor might prescribe a lethal dose of medicine for the patient to later choose to take (Gholipour). Physician-assisted suicide is legal in the United States only in Washington in Oregon. The patient must be terminally ill and agree to counseling and a waiting period to fully consider their decision to be considered for physician-assisted suicide in Oregon or Washington (B.C. Court of Appeal Upholds Ban on Assisted Suicide).This is not to be confused with euthanasia which is defined as "the act of bringing about the death of a hopelessly ill and suffering person in a relatively quick and painless way for reasons of mercy” by the Endlink Resource For End of Life Care Education (EndLink-Resource for End of Life Care Education). This definition leaves room for questions regarding the procedure of the death. What we are talking about here is physician assisted suicide where the patient makes the decision themselves to take the prescribed medicine and end their life.
One of my largest arguments supporting the legalization of physician-assisted suicide is that this would give terminally ill patients a peaceful way to pass away; putting an end to both psychological and physical suffering.
A great example of this is in the case of Dr. Donald Low. Low was diagnosed with a brain stem tumor in February 2013 and died around six months later. In the days before his death he strongly advocated for the legalization of physician-assisted suicide; he told anyone who asked that he wished a doctor opposed to it could spend a day in his body. He was convinced that they would change their mind on the issue if they were able to feel what he was going through. He was quoted saying things such as that he wanted to know when he was going to die and that he wanted it to be as peaceful as possible. Only physician-assisted suicide can guarantee peace at time of death as the mixture of drugs used will essentially just put you to sleep. He was very worried about suffering as his illness progressed. Low did not want to go through pain or become paralyzed before dying. He didn’t want to have to depend on his family members in his last days and become a burden to them. He expressed that he felt physician-assisted suicide was the logical answer to his problems and that it seemed like it was the obvious choice if it ended suffering (Janus). In a similar case, the maker of the Dilbert comic strip, Scott Adams, expressed his wish for the legalization of physician
assisted suicide in a post on his blog. He wrote of wishing for his father, who was suffering from a terminal illness at the time, to die soon. He was quoted speaking about his father saying, “I 'd like to proactively end his suffering and let him go out with some dignity. But my government says I can 't make that decision. Neither can his doctors. So, for all practical purposes, the government is torturing my father until he dies” (Kelley). In this case we see a family member on the outside watching their relative suffer. Adams wanted to end his father’s suffering but was not allowed to.
Persons opposed to physician-assisted suicide often argue that even though this procedure might end suffering it is immoral to take a life under any circumstances. My answer to this is simple. The taking of another’s life is what seems to be immoral. The physician would not be the person directly responsible for the death. The patient would be taking their own life, hence the inclusion of the term suicide. Further yet, physicians would not be required to be involved in physician assisted suicide if they do not wish to. A physician not wanting to participate could refer the patient requesting the treatment to another doctor that he or she trusts.
Now there is still concern that even the taking of your own life is immoral. In his article telling about how a judge in New Mexico ruled to allow physician-assisted suicide, Steve Siebold said, “In the Roman Catholic Church suicide is a sin because only God has the authority to end a human life. No evidence exists to support this claim, yet it 's the undercurrent of the laws banning assisted suicide” (Siebold). He goes on to reiterate how there is no evidence for God being against suicide. Similiarly, he asks why a God people consider to be merciful would condone human suffering that could be ended (Siebold). Shouldn’t those who are suffering come to heaven? We must be honest. Even if you do not believe in God or consider yourself religious this is where the arguments for the value of life stem from. This is not to say that because of this revelation, the revelation that there is no evidence for God being against suicide or that the general population is against suicide because of God, that we should all kill ourselves when something goes wrong. It does however shed a new light on physician assisted suicide if we dismiss these old fashioned ways of thinking that we may not even truly agree with ourselves.
The second large argument in favor of legalizing physician-assisted suicide is the overlooked fact that we all should have control of our own lives.
It really is nobody else’s choice but our own if we want to die. Taking into consideration what was said in the introduction about constitutional rights, we should all have the right to die because it is our own life. You may say that we had no choice in coming to life, why should we automatically have a say in when we die? But that is just it. We had no choice in being born, but once we are alive we should be completely in control of our own life. In the same article by Siebold, Judge Nan Nash is quoted saying, “This Court cannot envision a right more fundamental, more private or more integral to the liberty, safety and happiness of a New Mexican than the right of a competent, terminally ill patient to choose aid in dying” (Siebold). Nash is saying that of course a patient should be able to choose to end their suffering. There is no larger individual right than to be in control of your own
life.
While there are many different points of view to look at in the argument of physician-assisted suicide in the end it clearly should be legalized. Whatever means necessary should be used to end human suffering. Beyond this, also there is nothing that overpowers the fact that we each should have control over our own lives. If this were not a fact then murder would not be against the law.

Works Cited
"B.C. Court of Appeal Upholds Ban on Assisted Suicide." CTVNews. Ed. CTVNews.ca Staff. CT "EndLink-Resource for End of Life Care Education." EndLink-Resource for End of Life Care Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 June 2014 VNews.ca Staff, 10 Oct. 2013. Web. 01 June 2014
Gholipour, Bahar. "Physician-Assisted Suicide: Poll Shows Divide Among Experts." LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 11 Sept. 2013. Web. 02 June 2014
Janus, Andrea. "Dr. Donald Low Pleads for 'dying with Dignity ' in Posthumous Video." CTVNews. CTVNews.ca, 25 Sept. 2013. Web. 02 June 2014 Kelley, Michael B. "Dilbert Creator: 'The Government Is Torturing My Father Until He Dies '" Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 25 Nov. 2013. Web. 02 June 2014
Siebold, Steve. "Judge Rules to Allow Physician Assisted Suicide in New Mexico." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 15 Jan. 2014. Web. 02 June 2014
"The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription." National Archives and Records Administration. National Archives and Records Administration, n.d. Web. 01 June 2014.