Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

903 Words2 Pages

Assisted suicide brings a debate that involves professional, legal and ethical issues about the value of the liberty versus the value of life. However, before conceive an opinion about this topic is necessary know deeply its concept. Assisted suicide is known as the act of ending with the life of a terminal illness patients for end with their insupportable pain. Unlike euthanasia, the decision is not made by the doctor and their families, but by the patient. Therefore, doctors should be able to assist the suicide of their patients without being accused of committing a criminal offense. This conception is supported by three points of view. The first point defenses the autonomy of people, which covers the right of people to make decision about their own life. The second point advocates the empathy for our fellow human and their dignity at the end of their life. Lastly, the voice of society which has been giving more support to assisted suicide and euthanasia in the last years. The first reason to allow the legalization of assisted suicide is the autonomy of people. According to Ronald Dworkin (cited in Safranek 1998) right to autonomy is "a right to make important decisions defining their own lives for themselves." Therefore, right-to-die is associated with the right of people to make decisions about their own life. The controversy about this right is that might the patient is not in the right mental state to make choices properly. However, allowing doctors to assist a suicide provides necessary supervision of the process and to guarantee that the patient is in the right psychological state to make such decisions and also doctor can ensure that patient is aware of all the consequences that this implies. Price, A, McCormack, R, Wise... ... middle of paper ... ...109, no. 3, pp.629-642, Chicago-United State, viewed 1 May, . Paul, P 2002, Euthanasia and assisted suicide, American Demographics, vol. 24, no. 10, pp. 20-21, viewed 30 April 2014, . Price, A, McCormack, R, Wiseman, T, & Hotopf, M 2014, Concepts of mental capacity for patients requesting assisted suicide: a qualitative analysis of expert evidence presented to the Commission on Assisted Dying, J Med Ethics, viewed 10 May, . Safranek, J 1998, Autonomy and assisted suicide: the execution of freedom, The Hastings Center Report, vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 32-6, viewed 10 May, .

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