The Pros And Cons Of Euthanasia

During the month of March in the year 1998, a women dying of breast cancer in Oregon asked her physician to prescribe a drug that would allow her to end her life. The doctor, although apprehensive, agreed to her request, not wanting to cause her anymore pain and suffering as she slowly lost bits and pieces of her life from the disease. Later that month, after saying her goodbyes, she took the medication. With that action alone, she became the first person in the United States to legally commit suicide with the aid of a physician. This has become known as Euthanasia, or when doctors honor a patient’s voluntary request for a lethal dose of medication, which the patient later administers to him or herself to end their life. Since late 1997, Oregon still remains the only state to have provided clear procedures by which doctors can help end their dying patients’ pain and sorrow while protecting them from criminal prosecution. They have been permitted to prescribe a lethal dose of drugs to a mentally competent, terminally ill patient who makes written and oral requests, consults two physicians, and endures a mandatory waiting period. Other states across the country are making their own efforts to legalize euthanasia as well, however there is still much controversy and debate about the touchy subject. As a result of the unbearable suffering and agony of the sick and elderly across the world, physician-assisted suicide should unquestionably be legalized in the United States.

There are strong supporters and opponents of the act of assisted suicide. Some people that believe that individuals should be allowed access to medical assistance to end their lives voluntarily when and how they choose to do so. Others believe that euthanasia is esse...

... middle of paper ...

...sickness, suffering, chronic pain, and age. Death can indeed become a form of happiness for those who choose it. If they are sane enough to choose it, the fate of any individual rests in their own hands. The choice of self-deliverance should be an option to those people whom have come to a point in their lives where they truly want to travel down that path. Although life spans and treatment options will continue to increase in the future by our technological advances in the medical field to help delay the inevitability of death, it doesn’t mean that the quality of life hasn’t changed throughout the process. One’s quality of life can and will deteriorate throughout endless years of suffering and pain from disease and physical breakdown. Everyone should be given the option to choose their own destiny, and therefore, euthanasia should be legalized in the United States.