Doctor Assisted Suicide Persuasive Essay

Since the beginning of humanity, our actions as humans have been propelled by a single universal fear that shapes nearly every decision we make: death. Our most basic primal instincts are based on the singular idea of self-preservation, so our need to prolong our own lives as much as possible even as we continue to live is hardly surprising. However, death is unavoidable in the grand scheme of things, and some are forced to accept this fact long before they are actually faced with their death. Today, a widely-debated topic is based on this idea: should doctors be allowed to prescribe lethal drugs to terminally ill patients in order to assist them in suicide? I think that physicians should be allowed to assist terminally ill patients in suicide because of the promise of a painless death, a quick transition in passing, the patient’s right to their own life, and the ability for the patient to make their own decisions regarding their death.
A Painful Transition For patients that have terminal illnesses such as certain kinds of cancer, the last few stages are excruciatingly painful and can last a number of days to weeks. Ronald Levine, a doctor in Connecticut, believes …show more content…
This is especially true when it comes to a moral standpoint, with a vast majority of Christian groups opposing the idea with the justification that it is God’s will to take lives, not doctors’. Andrea Williams, the chief executive of Christian Concern, argues that it is “…not a doctor's place to play God at the end of life” (qtd. in Campbell, "Call to Let Terminally Ill Patients Die”). Others believe that a law that allows doctors to assist terminally ill patients in dying will simply let others be forced into suicide by doctors and relatives bent on the gain from their death, even going as far as implying that their care would lessen in quality if such an act were to be