Physician Assisted Suicide Essay Example for Free

Physician Assisted Suicide Essay According to the opposing viewpoints database Assisted suicide occurs when a physician provides a patient with the means of ending his or her life-usually a prescription for a fatal dose of drugs. The patient takes the drugs independently of the doctor. Assisted Suicide (also known as physician assisted suicide) has been an issue that is becoming hot as scientists are getting the ability to prolong human life and find a new way to cure diseases previously not able to be cured and people have been talking about people dying due to those diseases. Doctors have had to explain the available treatment options and to obtain the patients consent prior to treatment since the early 1900s with the standard of informed consent. This lets the patient make their own choice with the input of their doctor, and not just do whatever the doctor says. The question with assisted suicide is, Should people who want to die be allowed to arrange an easy, no pain death? I believe that with the correct guidelines and laws, allowing someone to take their own life should be allowed and ratified in all states. The opposing argument does have pretty good points, but I believe that the pros of allowing assisted suicide outweigh the cons. First the opposing view saying that assisted suicide shouldnt be legal says that legalizing assisted suicide would make it too easy for others, such as people suffering from treatable depression, to commit suicide. People with treatable depression might take advantage of this, but people with untreatable depression that have no way out and it is unfair to them to not be able to decide what they want. With the legalization of assisted suicide there will be steps in order for a person to qualify for it, such as the ones already  set up by the Netherland which state To qualify for euthanasia under Dutch law, a person must be mentally capable of making the decision, act voluntarily, be ill without hope of recovery, and have a lasting wish to die. Physicians performing euthanasia must consult with at least one other doctor and must write reports on each case. These qualifications will make it much more difficult for people to take advantage of the system of assisted suicide. Another opposing argument is that people who want to live might not get good care if assisted suicide is a cheaper alternative. This would not be the case because the Hippocratic Oath, which according to Medicinenet is a statement of medical ethics tells physicians, first, do no harm. While you might have the few corrupt doctors who will try to do this, the protocol set in place will make it very difficult for doctors to do this. Lastly the opposing view points My first reason of supporting the legalization of assisted suicide is since because people already can refuse treatment even if they know they will die, why are the not allowed to actively seek out a pain free death? Since you can decline to have treatment done on you if you have a life threatening disease and you know youre going to die, I believe it is fair to ask to be killed and put out of your misery. People with untreatable diseases such as Ebola, and cancer that will cause death, and depression that is untreatable should have a way to die without the day to day pain and suffering of living with the incurable diseases. Next assisted suicide should be legal because if someone is going to kill themselves already we should allow a pain free option, as opposed to a suicide like shooting or hanging yourself. People will always want to kill themselves but with the legalization of assisted suicide I think it will actually cut down on the number of suicides. The process of going through and getting cleared to have an assisted suicide might be able to clear a persons head and have them think more about whether they actually want to die or not so they cannot make a rash decision. This will also allow for a suicide that will go much more smoothly than suicides done by now by yourself since the physicians and doctors who know what they are doing are prescribing you a drug that you take to allow you to die. According to the  opposing viewpoints database some physician feel that it is appropriate for them to end the suffering of a patient who is capable of making a rational decision and asks to die. According to a study done by suicide.org from 1950-2003 26 percent of suicides attempted resulted in a failed suicide and just caused injury. This fact is not good and would be nonexistent if assisted suicide was legalized. Lastly assisted suicide should be legal because humans have the right to decide whether they want to live or die. We have the right to bear arms, freedom of speech, and other freedoms. We are our own entity, and I believe that people should have the right to a much more practical death run by someone who knows what they are doing. All human beings should be treated as equal and able they have certain rights. I believe that one of those rights is the right to determine if they want to live or die, and I think that people should have the option to have a professional to help. The debate of assisted suicide is a hot issue and has allowed for some very good debates in the past couple of years. I think the opposing view has some good points, but in my eyes the pros of assisted suicide diffidently outweigh the cons of it. I think assisted suicide should be legalized because since people can refuse treatment even if they are going to die why cant the ask to die, we should allow a pain free option since if they are already contemplating it they might do it so we should allow a way for someone to commit suicide with a professionals help, and lastly because it is a right humans have to determine whether they live or die. Assisted suicide is something that people talk about and a lot of people have opposing views of it, with me being on the side saying it should be legal. Citation page Assistedsuicide.org: Suicide Statistics. _At Suicide.org! , , , , !_ N.p., 12 June 2013. Web. 10 Oct. 2014. . Oppsingveiwpoints.com: Assisted Suicide. _Opposingviewpoints_. N.p., 15 Feb. 2012. Web. 10 Oct. 2014. . Hippocratic Oath: Hippocratic Oath. _MedicineNet_. N.p., 22 Nov. 2009. Web. 12 Oct. 2014. .