Pro Legalization on Assisted Suicide

09 August 2018

LEGALIZATION POF ASSISTED SUICIDE 1
What is assisted suicide?
Assisted Suicide refers to the commission of the suicide by someone with assistance
from another person, especially a physician (Merriam Webster Dictionary 2018). The assisted
suicide is often misunderstood to be the same as the practice of Euthanasia or mercy killing.
The basic difference between Euthanasia and the assisted suicide lies in the
performance of the last act. If a third party performs the last act to cause a patient’s death, it
would be termed as Euthanasia. On the other hand, if the one who dies performs the last act
by himself or herself, the death would be termed as the assisted suicide (Marker and Hamlon
2013).
The statutes in relation to the same are often referred to as the death with dignity
statutes. Physician assisted suicide is legal in total of seven states of US, namely California,
Colorado, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Oregon, Vermont and Washington DC (Death with
Dignity 2018). The same is legalized in Montana through the court ruling.
Debate surrounding assisted suicide
However, there have been an enormous number of debates concerning the viability of
the assisted suicide across the globe, including the United States, because of the parties and
the relationships involved and the ethical behavior grounds. The essay will explore the
arguments in favor of legalization of the assisted suicide in US, which have been listed as
follows.
Arguments towards pro-legalization
Right to life

LEGALIZATION POF ASSISTED SUICIDE 2
First and the most important argument that has been put forward in the favor of the
legalization of the assisted suicide is that the right of one’s own life lies with the patient
himself and there is a dignity in dying out of own choice (Botseas and Drosou 2).
The rationale behind the argument is stated to be allowance of greater choices, control
and access towards one owns life especially in case of the terminally ill patients. In addition
to this, a person has a right to access to the varied range of the medical care services at the
end of the life too. This includes that a person, his or her family, and friends must have the
right to have access to care and information with respect to the options to end the life.
The view is also supported in order to avoid the exercise of coercive pressure to die in
case of the excessively ill and frail persons and the ones who are considered disadvantageous
by the family members. Therefore, assisted suicide prevents a person against the malign
influences to die and thus protects their right to have a respectable death.
Physical conditions
The second argument that has been put forward in the support of the legalization of
the assisted suicide is the existence of the physical and the psychological factors, while
making such a decision. Generally, the choice of the assisted suicide is made in the cases of
physical conditions such as terminal medical conditions such as cancer, AIDS, loss of
memory and vision and others (Annadurai, Danasekaran, and Mani 477).
In addition to this, the physical conditions are characterised by the paralysis,
breathlessness, difficulty in swallowing and the psychological factors such as acute
depression, anxiety bouts, feeling of burden on the closed ones and more (Paterson 7.4d).
Thus, in the cases of the terminal illness that cannot be cured through medicines and
palliative care leads to no improvement in the condition, the assisted suicide is feasible.