The Pros and Cons of Physician Assisted Suicide

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In the United States, a seventy-nine year old man who has Alzheimer’s is kept on life support in a vegetative state. He has been on it for six months and can no longer eat by himself. The doctor has put in a feeding tube orally, which causes severe discomfort in the old man. He sometimes tries desperately to drag the tube out, but to no avail due to the atrophy of muscles. This man has no next of kin known and cannot make any decisions on his own. He is suffering a slow death. Earlier in life he expressed his wishes that he would rather die than to succumb to something like this. As medical technology progresses so does the human life span. Therefore, a line should be drawn where you can decide to prolong your life through medicine or not. With physician assisted suicide, which is when the patient gets a prescription to end their life painlessly, the elderly man depicted above could have prevented succumbing to such a miserable state. What should the hospital staff do about this man? They are unable to fulfill his wishes by cutting his life short as it would be illegal. Do they extend his life further or allow him to die a dignified death? Even so, terminally ill patients should be allowed to decide their own fate because prolonging life with medicine is not truly living at all and the honor you have could be stripped away. People should be able to decide what to do with their own life. The Constitution of the United States claims that people have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This text upon which our country is founded clearly states, that people in the United States ought to be in control over their own life. An instance in the film Let Me Die shows the perspective of an old man, wh... ... middle of paper ... ... Suicide Law." Mortality 10.1 (2005): 53-67. Academic Search Complete. Web. 10 Apr. 2014. Knickerbocker, Brad. "Doctor-aided Suicide: Shifting Politics." Pro-life Forces in House Opt for Backdoor Strategy to Try to Curtail Trend toward Euthanasia 1999: n. pag. Edison State College. Web. 6 Apr. 2014. "Let Me Die." Films On Demand. National Film Board of Canada, n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2014 "Death with Dignity Act." Death with Dignity Act. Oregon Health Authority, n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2014. Tucker, Kathryn L. "Assisted Suicide Works Well in Oregon." Assisted Suicide. Ed. Noël Merino. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. Current Controversies. Rpt. from "In the Laboratory of the States: The Progress of Glucksberg's Invitation to States to Address End-of-Life Choice." Michigan Law Review 106.8 (June 2009): 1593-1611. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.

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