Morally Right To Die

Last year, I read a magazine article about an ethical issue involving an individual with terminal brain cancer choosing to die “with dignity” rather than wait for the terminal illness to end her life. Initially I wrote it off as propaganda, but then I started seeing it on the news and just about everyone I knew was talking about it. At that time, I didn’t realize it was an ethical issue, but it is. The textbook defines ethics as the study of human moral consciousness, the ways in which we make moral decisions about specific life situations. (Haecker, pg 1) Is it morally right for an individual to choose when they will die? If it is, is this decision limited to certain individuals or does everyone have the right to end their life when they see fit? On November 1, 2014, twenty-nine year old Brittany Maynard used drugs prescribed by a doctor to end her life, just eighteen days shy of her thirtieth birthday. Yes, she had a terminal illness, but that doesn’t give her or anyone the right to die, she didn’t die with dignity, she robbed her family and loved ones of precious moments that they could have had together. …show more content…
I am firm in my beliefs that “we should always act in the way that God command us to act.” (Haecker, pg 5) It is my belief that God does not approve of death “with dignity” which is just a way of saying assisted suicide. All my life I’ve heard that individuals should not harm themselves or attempt to commit suicide because God has us here for a reason and we will die when he is ready for us to leave this world. God alone is the only being that has the right to give and take life. I think if we as a society allow assisted suicide to become a legal right of individuals, we are ultimately destroying the professional ethics that doctors govern themselves by. Doctors are meant to promote, maintain or restore human health, not end human