The Benefits Of Legalizing Assisted Suicide

Ezekial J. Emanuel stated that, “Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are not ends in themselves with intrinsic value. At best they are means to realize the end of a good death or, more accurately, a quality dying experience” (Emanuel, 1999). The Merriam Webster dictionary defines assisted suicide as follows: suicide with help from another person (such as a doctor) to end suffering from severe physical illness. As of 2014 four states in the USA have already legalized assisted suicide. Those states are as follows: Oregon legalized assisted suicide on November 8, 1994, Washington legalized assisted suicide on November 4, 2008, Montana legalized assisted suicide on December 31, 2009, and Vermont legalized assisted suicide on May 20, 2013 (“State-by-State Guide to Physician-Assisted Suicide - Euthanasia - ProCon.org,” n.d.). These four states are proof that assisted suicide can be legalized without the fears of the naysayers coming to life. Other states can also learn how to improve legalizing …show more content…
Assisted suicide should be legalized to end one’s suffering near death, build better doctor-patient relationships, and give patients the right to choose when and how they want to die.
One reason assisted suicide should be legalized is because it ends one’s near death suffering. Suffering is define as causing a person enduring physical, psychological or psychosocial pain that is intolerable to that person and cannot be relived by any medical treatment acceptable