Assisted Suicide Should Be Option

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Lauren Bacall once said, “A man’s illness is his private territory and, no matter how much he loves you and how close you are, you stay an outsider. You are healthy.” This quote makes the point that no one knows exactly what someone with an incurable illness is going through. We are all outsiders. So, who is to say, for example, physician assisted suicide should be illegal? If a person has the constitutional right to live then a person should have the right to choose to die on his own terms. Also, if a person that is terminally ill chooses to opt for assisted suicide, the potential for vital organs to be saved is much greater. As the sickness starts to take over many patients become too ill to do daily activities on their own but, with assisted suicide, the patient can die with dignity knowing that they saved themselves and their family time, money, and also heartbreak. As assisted suicide is discussed among many groups one must also take a look at the alternatives offered.

As definition states, assisted suicide is the suicide of a patient suffering from an incurable disease. Assisted suicide originated so that a terminally ill patient could be aided with his/her intentions of suicide.(Webster, 2011) Also to give the patient an opportunity to die on their own terms. Euthanasia also plays a key role in assisted suicide. Euthanasia has to be required by a conscious patient suffering from an irreversible affliction inducing physical and/or psychological suffering, with no hope for improvement or for rapid spontaneous death; request for euthanasia has to be written by the patient or by his (her) representative who has no interest in the patient death. Modern medicine has come very far in recent years but, unfortunately, it cannot take...

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...them to have to go through. Everyone should have the choice of what they want to do with their life. Assisted suicide would give them this option.

Works Cited

Coma Science Group. (2008). Organ donation after physician assisted death.

Friedman, L. (2009). Assisted suicide. (pp. 55-56). California: Reference Point Press.

Legal Information Institute. (1997, 06 27). Dennis c. vacco vs. timothy e. quill. Retrieved from http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/95-1858.ZO.html

Morrow, A. (2009, 6 16). Palliative sedation. Retrieved from http://dying.about.com/od/glossary/g/palliative_sedation.htm

Tyson, P. (2001, 3 27). The hippocratic oath today. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/hippocratic-oath-today.html

Webster, M. (2011, 6 13). Definition:assisted suicide. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/assisted suicide

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