Assisted Suicide
Introduction
The right to life is one of the basic human freedoms. Similarly, the right to take away one’s own life is not punishable in the modern world. However, there are cases, when an individual who is willing to commit suicide is not able to do so by himself. Therefore, practices such as Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS) occur often in the world, somewhere legally and somewhere illegally. Assisted suicide is the act when a patient gets the help of a doctor to end life at his/her will. This practice is common among patients who are so severely ill and in pain, that life becomes unbearable.
Assisted suicide is considered illegal in most countries except for Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the US states of Oregon and Washington (The Economist). What makes PAS different from suicide is the fact that to end one’s life, an individual needs the help of another person. Even though both cases are not subject to the same legal framework, criminalizing PAS is unfair and discriminatory for chronically-ill patients. A rational patient who is unable to bear the pain in the last stages of his life, and lives in a liberal country, should be granted with the right of getting a help to ‘die with dignity’.
Arguments …show more content…
Those countries where governance is linked with religion are not expected to legalize such practices. Religion prohibits suicide. Secular countries, on the other hand, are already starting to recognize the need for legalization of PAS, or at least contemplating about this new perspective. Time has changed the perception of social phenomenon. “…not only has it become socially acceptable to talk about death and dying with someone who is terminally ill, but, as traditional religious and legal strictures loosen, it is becoming possible for a person facing death to consider what role he or she wants to play in the forthcoming death” (Battin
Introduction
The right to life is one of the basic human freedoms. Similarly, the right to take away one’s own life is not punishable in the modern world. However, there are cases, when an individual who is willing to commit suicide is not able to do so by himself. Therefore, practices such as Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS) occur often in the world, somewhere legally and somewhere illegally. Assisted suicide is the act when a patient gets the help of a doctor to end life at his/her will. This practice is common among patients who are so severely ill and in pain, that life becomes unbearable.
Assisted suicide is considered illegal in most countries except for Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the US states of Oregon and Washington (The Economist). What makes PAS different from suicide is the fact that to end one’s life, an individual needs the help of another person. Even though both cases are not subject to the same legal framework, criminalizing PAS is unfair and discriminatory for chronically-ill patients. A rational patient who is unable to bear the pain in the last stages of his life, and lives in a liberal country, should be granted with the right of getting a help to ‘die with dignity’.
Arguments …show more content…
Those countries where governance is linked with religion are not expected to legalize such practices. Religion prohibits suicide. Secular countries, on the other hand, are already starting to recognize the need for legalization of PAS, or at least contemplating about this new perspective. Time has changed the perception of social phenomenon. “…not only has it become socially acceptable to talk about death and dying with someone who is terminally ill, but, as traditional religious and legal strictures loosen, it is becoming possible for a person facing death to consider what role he or she wants to play in the forthcoming death” (Battin