What would you do if you knew that your mother has little hope in finding peace anywhere but death? What would you want if you were the one experiencing an excruciating physical pain that would not stop until you took one pill? Physician assisted suicide is the lethal prescription for terminally ill people. It grants the power for a person to end their life when they wish to. But, this action has a big question mark around it. In the United States, Oregon, Washington, Vermont, New Mexico, and Montana are the only states where it is legal to medically assist suicide. The question and debate is, should we legalize assisted suicide everywhere else?
Peter Singer, Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University and Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne, believes we should. By portraying the story of Gillian Bennett, an old woman who suffered of dementia and decided to end her life this way, he demonstrates how the act of physician assisted suicide is not an unmoral choice. He believes it is a right for everyone to choose to end his or her life, rather than going through intolerable suffer.
On the other hand, …show more content…
She portrays this as a problem. Singer agrees on the fact that people may choose this path because they feel as a burden on others but he does not view it as a problem, rather he believes it is an ethical choice. He refers to Bennett and her words, “all I lose is an indefinite number of years of being a vegetable in a hospital setting, eating up the country’s money…” (Singer 2). He says this is ethical because Bennett thinking of the “country’s money”, means that she was not only thinking of herself. I agree with Singer’s suggestion that thinking of someone else rather than yourself is an ethical decision, and I don’t believe we should miss-interpret a selfless action like this as a problem, like Finlay otherwise
Peter Singer, Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University and Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne, believes we should. By portraying the story of Gillian Bennett, an old woman who suffered of dementia and decided to end her life this way, he demonstrates how the act of physician assisted suicide is not an unmoral choice. He believes it is a right for everyone to choose to end his or her life, rather than going through intolerable suffer.
On the other hand, …show more content…
She portrays this as a problem. Singer agrees on the fact that people may choose this path because they feel as a burden on others but he does not view it as a problem, rather he believes it is an ethical choice. He refers to Bennett and her words, “all I lose is an indefinite number of years of being a vegetable in a hospital setting, eating up the country’s money…” (Singer 2). He says this is ethical because Bennett thinking of the “country’s money”, means that she was not only thinking of herself. I agree with Singer’s suggestion that thinking of someone else rather than yourself is an ethical decision, and I don’t believe we should miss-interpret a selfless action like this as a problem, like Finlay otherwise