Persuasive Essay On Euthanasia

Physician-assisted suicide is a voluntary form of euthanasia that is currently being used in countries around the world, including the United States. Imagine being terminally ill, living one 's life bedridden and in excruciating pain while family and friends stand by watching the suffering day after day. In a situation like this, being given the option for euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide allows one to end their life with dignity in a safe and painless way. The intent of physician-assisted suicide is to grant people with the right to choose if they are in a proper state of health to continue to live, or if they want to end their suffering. I believe that everyone is in charge of their own life and body. No one should be forced to suffer

No one wants to have to help someone end their life or to have a say in that decision, but since terminally ill disease do existence, and when requests for assisted suicide are being made, no one has the right to deny someone of that. When Gov. Jerry Brown of California signed the bill allowing physician-assisted suicide he said, “I do not know what I would do if I were dying in prolonged and excruciating pain. I am certain, however, that it would be a comfort to be able to consider the options afforded by this bill. And I wouldn’t deny that right to others” (Lovett). Denying people the right to choose if they want to end their life is not preserving the sanctity of life; it is forcing someone to suffer through their last days when they do not want to. Erwin Chemerinsky wrote the article “Recognize the Right to Die With Dignity”, for the LA Times describing his experience with a unavoidable death that could have been easier if assisted suicide was able to have taken place. Chemerinsky’s father died from lung cancer three years ago in hospice care. In his last days he suffered from enormous pain; he begged the doctors to put him out of his misery because the pain was intolerable and he knew he only had days left. The doctors, despite wanting to help and feeling sorry for him, couldn’t do anything besides give him more pain medication until Chemerinsky’s father eventually died. Through this Chemerinsky and his family had to watch their loved one suffer and beg them for a death that they could not provide. Stories like these are heard far too often; most people have experienced, or have had a friend experience, a loved one being terminally ill, or a grandparent being in hospice at some point. When faced between either ignoring a person’s pleas for death, or helping them end their misery in a painless way, abiding by what the patient wants is the most humane