Should Physician-Assisted Suicide be Legal in America?

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In America today, there is a considerable amount of debate on whether or not physician-assisted suicide should be legal nationwide. However, I believe the question is not just should physician-assisted suicide be legal nationwide, but instead, do we as human beings have the right to determine when we die? Personally, I believe we do have the right to determine when we die, so I support physician-assisted suicide. However, I also believe there should be regulations on when we should be able to make this decision. Humans should be able to do whatever they want with their life, and the government should not keep individuals who are in extreme pain and only have a few months to live from ending their life with dignity. This topic is of extreme interest to me because I am interested in the medical field and I am a huge advocate of people living their life to the fullest by doing whatever they want.
The answer to the question, do we as human beings have the right to determine when we die, does not have a clear yes or no answer. The debate is not just black or white, it is gray in that there are many different positions that different individuals chose to support or not. Three major positions on the issue of physician-assisted suicide are: yes, physician-assisted suicide should be legal but it depends on the illness, yes, physician-assisted suicide should be legal but it needs to be heavily regulated, and lastly, just no.
The first position I am going to talk about is yes, physician-assisted suicide should legal, but it depends on the illness. For example, physician-assisted suicide should not be accessible to a patient who has depression because depression for the most part is treatable. Further, physician-assisted suicide ...

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... Those who oppose the legalization of physician-assisted suicide often quote this oath that states the physician’s job is to do no harm, and if they are prescribing lethal drugs, they are obviously doing harm to their patient.
In conclusion, the debate on whether or not physician-assisted suicide should be legalized or not is not purely black or white. There are many different positions regarding this issue and each position should be looked at with great care before one makes their decision on whether to support legalization or not. Ultimately, the choice is yours.

Works Cited

Ebrahimi, Nargus. "The Ethics Of Euthanasia." Australian Medical Student Journal 3.1 (2012): 73-75. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.
Gunderson, M, and D J Mayo. "Restricting Physician-Assisted Death To The Terminally Ill." The Hastings Center Report 30.6 (2000): 17-23. MEDLINE. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.

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