Assisted Suicide Debate: Legalizing Physician

Essay by fazzsterJunior High, 9th grade March 2007

download word file, 2 pages 5.0 1 reviews

Allowing assisted suicide would allow patients to be relieved of tremendous pain and suffering. The doctors who would assist the suicide would have more free time. This way they can work on saving the lives of people who actually have a chance at living.

So with these arguments we have a plan to propose: All 50 states in the United States of America should legalize physician-assisted suicide. In 1997, the state of Oregon legalized assisted suicide when they passed the "Death with Dignity Act" which according to legalaffairs.org, allows a terminally ill patient who has six months or less to live to have the right to commit suicide with the aid of a doctor. Many people may think that this is doctor abuse. However, the laws which Oregon created protect the value of human life and prevent this so called abuse. To show how this is so: You can require the approval of two doctors and a psychologist, can attain waiting periods, can get your family members to sign you to a peaceful death, and can limit the procedures to certain illnesses.

Using reasoning we can come up with the solution that all states should pass this same Act which benefits terminally ill patients and their families.

The "Death with Dignity Act" still holds strong today. On Tuesday, January 17th, 2006, the Supreme Court backed the Assisted Suicide Law, according to the reliable source, foxnews.com. In a vote of 6 to 3, it was ruled that a federal drug law could not be used to prosecute Oregon doctors who prescribed overdoses in order to cause death to their terminally ill patients. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor pointed out a very interesting argument. She stated that doctors assist in the lethal injections of death row inmates. Hmmm… so...