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MLane Cunningham

Professor Collins

ENGL 1301

11 October 2017

Assisted Suicide

Assisted Suicide is a topic that has been debated a multitude of times over the years going

all the way back to the 90s. Assisted Suicide is a situation when a doctor and/or nurses assist you

in your own suicide with euthanasia. The process is completely painless, and it is as if the patient

has fallen into the deepest of all sleeps and no longer feels any pain from the sickness they were

enduring any longer. The debate is very large on if this assisted suicide is ethical, and if it is not

ethical is it considered murder to take someones life even if they are begging for help because

they want to find some sort of peace and if whoever helps or assists in the suicide should receive

jail time. Assisted suicide has become a prominent debate recently because the right to be at

peace versus being forced to live are both valid viewpoints that exist and have passionate

supporters.

The main argument for allowing assisted suicide is if doctors or nurses assist a patient in

ending their life; then they are letting them out of all pain and misery they constantly endure

daily. The person assisting is following out the patients true wishes, truly what they want for

themselves. Day after day these patients wake up wanting to end their lives and find some sort of

peace in this world. No one wants to sit around day in and day out feeling completely miserable,

downhearted and depressed because they are continuously in an unwell state. The only reason,

most of the time these patients wishes cannot be fulfilled is because there are specific laws in
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place. Most of the laws are so strict that if a doctor helps assist you he and/or she can go to

prison with some sort of murder charge. All anyone in the world wants is a peaceful joyous life.

Not one where they want to die every second of everyday just to make the pain go away. On the

National Survey of Physician Assisted Suicide, 95% of people that took the survey chose that

they would help a patient with the assisted suicide even though it is illegal (A National, NEJM).

Most patients that decide to go this route usually have a palliative doctor which is basically a

doctor that helps a patient at the end of their road go peacefully, and comfortably. The way a

palliative doctor, by the name of Dr. Buchman; in the article The Doctor Who Took on Death,

described his experience with assisted suicide and when it became legal helping patients leave

the earth peacefully if he saw that it was an absolute last resort for them was, Its about

providing a good death, if I can put it that wayabout optimizing the dying process for a patient

and their family, Buchman says. So, in a way, its always about living. (The Doctor,

Proudfoot). Assisted suicide is looked at in a positive way at times because for some people, it is

that first moment of peace they have experienced in a long amount of time because they have

been so ill.

Opposing side of the argument is that assisted suicide is murder. The definition of

murder, as stated on dictonary.com which is the Merriam-Webster dictionary, definition number

one. under murder is, The crime of unlawfully killing a person especially with malice

aforethought. (dictonary.com). Therefore, no matter the route the killer goes about the murder,

even if the death is for the greater good or creates peace; it is still murder. Killing someone is

inhumane whether the patient begs the doctors and nurses too or not. There is a debate on if

whoever assists the suicide should receive jail time and if they receive jail time should it be for

the same sentence as a murderer would receive. Furthermore, a cure could be found after the fact
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and the person would never get to experience being cured, instead they chose to leave the earth

with the mindset that no cure could be found and they would be in pain forever. By the patient

making that selfish decision of having someone help kill them, then that ends the chance of

someone finding a cure for a multitude of others including that patient to be cured.

Another argument about assisted suicide is that it might get out of hand and eventually

turn into legalized murder. Then people will try to find ways and loop holes to abuse legalized

murder for reasons other than assisted suicide and besides the fact that the patient can no longer

bare the pain. People may try to take advantage of it and question on why they would need

someones consent if the person is extremely sick, take away their misery (Euthanasia Pro).

Drew Shaw in the article Journal of Medical Ethics stated, ...we are not entitled to everything

that we want in life or death. A doctor cannot always fittingly provide all that a patient wants or

needs.. Meaning that just because a doctor is asked to do something does not mean that they

should actually do so. Just because the patient feels as if their journey is coming to an end does

not mean it actually is (McLachlan, Journal of).

The world is full of controversy, especially on topics such as assisted suicide. There are

many reasons to agree and or disagree with many aspects of the process. One of the reasons that

could easily get people to agree with it is, the body belongs to the patient. If a patient is

miserable how is it moral for someone to tell them they must live and suffer even if they know

their sickness is never going away. In the article First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion &

Public Life, in the section about; The Metaphysical Revolution, the author stated Why should

my bondage to a dying body limit my freedom? Should my body impede my freedom by

becoming so sick and debilitated that I cannot kill myself, I must have free recourse to the

assistance of others to exercise my freedom. This statement hits hard and deep morally. Is not
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some random bystanders decision to tell a sick person they must be continuously be bonding to

a bodying they know is dying instead of just being able to set themselves free.

The right to be at peace and being forced to live are two of the main points in the debate

about assisted suicide that will remain prominent. Whether or not it will be legalized worldwide

or even nationwide is a topic that is continuously up for discussion and debate. Numerous people

feel extremely strong about either sides of the debate which is why the two sides will never come

to an agreement.
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Works Cited

A National Survey of Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in the United States

NEJM. New England Journal of Medicine,

www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199804233381706.

Euthanasia - ProCon.Org. Should euthanasia or physician-Assisted suicide be legal?,

euthanasia.procon.org/.

McLachlan, Hugh V. "Assisted Suicide and the Killing of People? Maybe. Physician-Assisted

Suicide and the Killing of Patients? No: The Rejection of Shaw's New Perspective on

Euthanasia." Journal of Medical Ethics, vol. 36, no. 5, May 2010, p. 13. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.1136/jme.2009.033118.

PROUDFOOT, SHANNON. "The Doctor Who Took on Death." Maclean's, vol. 130, no. 8,Sept.

2017,p.52.EBSCOhost,search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=1244

96995&site=ehost-live.

"The Metaphysical Revolution." First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion & Public Life, no.

254, Jun/Jul2015, pp. 57. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hft&AN=102624181&site=ehost-live.