Should Assisted Suicide be Legal - Essay Example

? ASSISTED SUICIDE: SHOULD IT BE LEGAL Kristin Kennedy Philosophy 103 John Moore March 19, ASSISTED SUICIDE: SHOULD IT BE LEGAL? Should assistedsuicide be legal? Yes, as long as the patient is mentally sound enough to make the decision for him. Each person deals with death in their own way. It all depends on the individual’s health, ethics, and personal living condition. Physical pain and psychological distress can push a person to want to choose death, but many factors need to be considered before a person is allowed to make the final decision. John is hospitalized with cancer, death is imminent, and he is in excruciating pain that is not relieved by medicine. He begs his family and his doctors to end his life so he will no longer feel the pain. John has been diagnosed with a cancer that is not treatable and this cancer will take his life eventually. A medically hastened death that speeds up the process should be an alternative for John. The suffering of John cannot be understood by anyone else apart from John himself and to choose for death over life is not an easy option. Thus the decision of John implies a very important aspect of human suffering and if he wants to end his misery by ending his life, he should be permitted to do so as this is the only option left for him. With the development in the world, the human mind has broadened its perspectives. The spread of knowledge has enabled a person to know how human beings have evolved as well as to understand their position and rights in the society. Gone are the times when people used to be suppressed by their powerful counterparts. With this evolution the recognition of the self and civil liberties have been understood. People have reached to levels where they believe that they possess complete control of their lives to an extent that they can strongly advocate the fact that they can choose for death as an option and they consider this demand to be their due right. Pain and suffering is a feeling which is very difficult for a human being to bear. If a person feels that he has lost all hope of living a normal live and his life would only be filled with pain and suffering, he can opt for the decision like assisted suicide. It is extremely important that all options relating to the aspect of assisted suicide should be considered before legalizing it. It should be a practice which should be allowed for people but there should be a set of strict rules and regulations to check for all the aspects of the person before he opts for this option. This is because many people could opt for this method without any sound and important reasons. Thus a set of rules should be implemented along with the legalization of this method which must include thorough research on the life of the person who opts for assisted suicide. This should be followed by a confirmation of the fact that there is no way in which the condition of the patient can improve. The practice of assisted suicide has been met with much criticism by many groups. The religious groups argue against this practice very strongly. According to these religions human beings are not the judges of the lives of other human beings and thus euthanasia that is assisted suicide is an unethical issue. Moreover, these religions say that the individuals have to suffer as it has been written in their fate by God himself and human beings have no interference in killing these individuals and relieving them from pain. A person has to face all the difficulties and hardships that come in their way. Thus opting for assisted suicide is not justified according to the religious perspective (Bowie, 2001). The critics of Euthanasia have other concerns as well as they believe that following this practice may divert the professionals from their original line of work. The doctors and physicians were supposedly the ones who saved the lives of people and provided them the hope of living their lives and providing them with the best possible forms of treatment. Their function is not to kill them out of mercy. So if a doctor or physician carries out such a practice then he is disobeying the rules set out for him in this field (Mengal et al 2002). Other arguments against the assisted suicide have also been presented. This includes the fact that undesirable patients would also seek death to get relieved of the pain that they are being imposed with. It is seen that every disease has its profound effects on the patients and while the patient is suffering he is not willing to cope up with the increasing pressure. Thus even those patients who would not have such a serious disease would seek assisted and the existence of life would be threatened. In some cases it is also seen that when the patient is suffering from terminal illness he is not in his senses and he would require something which is beyond his thoughts. For example patients with Alzheimer’s disease suffer from cognitive impairment and they may not know what exactly death may cause. These patients then would ask for the option of assisted suicide without even knowing that it may cause permanent seizure of their bodily functions. Such similar diseases may cause loss of cognitive abilities and these patients may use the option of assisted suicide without even knowing that death would ensue (BBC News). The opponents also argue that the revising of the law of assisted suicide can also have other several adverse effects on the society as a whole. It is seen that nowadays young people are not able to cope up with many stages of life and they give up their hope of living and resort to ending their lives themselves and hence commit suicide. This new law would pave a way for them to be legally applicable to death. Thus in other words it can be said that if the assisted suicide is legalized, many unwanted cases may also arise who would seek death (Keon 2002). Assisted suicide is a very controversial topic these days which relates to the killing of an individual either with his consent or without his consent so as to end his misery in this life. In practice assisted suicide is the most talked about subject these days, as such kind of patients are being treated everyday in the hospitals (Gordian, 1997). Assisted suicide is being practiced in many states of the world these days and almost all of the physicians in the world are aware about the practice. Many of the patients coming to these physicians are suffering from pathological conditions and disorders which cannot be cured and thus the physicians have to take such drastic steps. The individuals who support assisted suicide pronounce that through this practice the individuals who are suffering could be laid at rest without suffering much more in this life. Similarly they also put that individuals who are even given pain killers may not be able to live a dependent life as they have to go through a very difficult phase of their life and they may also not be able to provide even the most basic activities required to be performed every day. Not only this, the individuals who are dying already may become a hindrance for other patients coming to the hospital for treatment purposes. And as there is an increase in the number of patients in this world hospital spaces are becoming short. Thus if such patients who already have less chances of survival are killed with their consent they might be able to save other precious lives. Thus it is argued by proponents that the patients who are suffering will not be the only one benefitting from assisted suicide but other individuals would also be able to receive quality treatment which would otherwise not be possible (Quaghebeur et al 2009). Assisted suicide is hence a very important subject and it is argued upon by many groups around the world. It is an act of ending the life of an individual when there is no hope left for improvement of his condition and his chances of leading a quality life without dependency are minimal. Religious groups present their arguments against it and it is also criticized by other groups who fight against the legalization of this practice. But it is not to be forgotten that this act is actually being performed by the doctors and physicians to assist the patients and hence they are not deviating from their jobs but rather they are performing an act of helping their patients. Thus the doctors are catering to the needs of their patients. To live a life of suffering is not very easy and it can be easily realized that to take such an important decision for one self is not easy. And if a person is courageous enough to take this decision, he should not be let down. This is because every human being has the right to take decisions for their lives. Therefore assisted suicide is justified and it should be legalized. References Bowie, Robert A. Ethical Studies. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes, 2001. Print. Euthanasia and the Law. BBC News. Retrieved from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/panorama/1971553.stm Keown, J. (2002). Euthanasia, ethics and public policy: An argument against legalisation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Mengel, Mark B, Warren L. Holleman, and Scott A. Fields.Fundamentals of Clinical Practice. New York, N.Y: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 2002. Nursing Assisted-Suicide and Euthanasia: A Scholarly Anthology That Defines. S.l.: Gordian, 1997. Print. Quaghebeur, T, de C. B. Dierckx, and C Gastmans. "Nursing and Euthanasia: a Review of Argument-Based Ethics Literature." Nursing Ethics. 16.4 (2009): 466-86. Print. Read More