Assisted Suicide: Do You Have The Right to Die?

Dr. Jack Kevorkian was an activist in the 1990s who believed that “dying is not a crime”. With his belief of having the right to die, he assisted more than 120 individuals with their suicides. For assisting with his patients' deaths, Dr. Kevorkian was charged with second degree murder and ultimately lost his medical license. With the mentioned case listed as an example, many physicians and others in the medical profession refuse to medically assist in a patient's suicide for fear of losing their license or being incarcerated. However, it may be beneficial to allow a person the right to die if they so choose.

Assisted suicide, also known as “pulling the plug”, is a viable choice for terminally ill patients to die with dignity. Dying with dignity is an honorable to some, including the Romans. In Rome, “suicide was not punishable if 'it was caused by impatience of pain or sickness, or by weariness of life... lunacy, or fear of dishonor'.” Their philosophy was living nobly also meant dying nobly and at the right time. For terminally ill patients, the right time to die may be when they are diagnosed with their illness or when pain due to their illness overwhelms them. In the article “Is It Merciful to Help a Terminally Ill Person Die”, one of the terminally ill women recalled her husband shooting himself when he was diagnosed with cancer; she did not shoot herself but agreed that her husband “did it the right way.” Because she was afraid of committing suicide, she assisted the help of her friend and soon the doctors, who could not assist in ending her life and instead gave her morphine. Because of the doctor not assisting her with ending her life, she had to live the rest of her life in pain. Had she received medication to help her w...

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...alignant neoplasms, which is incurable. At their end of life care, most were enrolled in Hospice. The patients who opted for this care also had insurance, the majority having either private or Medicaid/Medicare insurance. Having end-of-life care helped the ill patients die with little pain.

In order to die with dignity, people who have illnesses should have the right to die. If a person has an illness such as cancer, they should be allowed to make a final decision instead of laying in a hospital bed dying slowly of pain. The same should apply for parents with fatally ill children if they wish for their child to no longer suffer. The best solution would be to follow the guidelines of Washington and Oregon and have strict rules on who is eligible for medically assisted suicide. The patients and families should have rights to make decisions on when their lives end.