The Pros And Cons Of Assisted Suicide

The official definition of assisted suicide (or voluntary euthanasia) according to the Oxford Dictionaries states, “The suicide of a patient suffering from an incurable disease, affected by the taking of lethal drugs provided by a doctor for this purpose.” Assisted suicide enforces a right to die when the person in question chooses, and this right is one that many people believe should be enforced. Death is a situational topic that no one could ever fully know every aspect of it until it has happened or close to it. While modern medicine has greatly improved all aspects of life over the years there is still no way to be rid of all the pain and complications of death. And with each death there is also a different way to deal with death, it …show more content…
There are a lot of patients in the world that can speak on their behalf of how some illnesses inflict tremendous pain and suffering on a person. A website called Balanced Politics wrote, “Numerous ailments such as certain types of cancer result in a slow, agonizing death. Doctors have enough knowledge and experience to know when a patient's days are numbered” (Joe Messerli). More often than not people get a countdown from a physician telling them they only have a certain amount of time left to live, most of that time is spent sick and in gradually increasing pain until death. It is situations like this that force people to stop and ask “is it more humane to ask the patient when they’ve had enough?” This is the point where it should not be acceptable to speak for someone who is dealing with a situation like that by undermining their pain and suffering for the “greater good of the medical world”. There are many people who would rather die with some idea of who they are and their strength rather than be reduced into whatever the illness makes of them. And while many people believe that assisted suicide or euthanasia can become a slippery slope there many reasonable laws that could be put into the equation to prevent medical abuse. Messerli also wrote, “Recent Oregon and UK laws show that you can craft reasonable laws […] for example, you can require the approval of two doctors plus a psychologist […] you can proscribe waiting periods, get the additional sign-off of family members, and limit the procedures to certain illnesses.” By enforcing law such as these a doctor would be taking into account every aspect of the decision and ensuring safety and accountability for actions. It could become a safe practice that includes the opinions of many before the act is performed, while the patient still has