Writing Feedback / Assisted Suicide Should be a Persons Final Civil Right [3]

Assisted suicide should be allowed for various reasons such as those who are terminally ill, pain and anguish of patient's friends and family can be lessened, patient can die with dignity rather than living an incompetent shell of their previous life. Providing one person the help and instructions necessary to commit suicide is defined as assisted suicide. In Oregon, Vermont, and Washington assisted suicide is legal, making it illegal in most other states. Although this is a controversial subject allowing people to die by withholding food and fluids form people who are not dying is legal in all fifty states. My goal for this paper is to show the importance for individuals to have the right to make the final decision regarding their life, or specifically when to end it.

Assisted suicide is not a new concept, it was first brought to media attention in 1990 with Jack Kevorkian also known as "Doctor Death" and his "suicide machine" in which he used to administer lethal doses of medication. Although Kevorkian claims to have aided approximately 130 people with assisted suicide it was one that he got sentenced to seven year in prison for until 2007 when he was released at the age of 79. Kevorkian videotaped the death of a 52 year old man who was suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease and allowed it to be broadcast on a long time running television show, 60 Minutes.

Terminally ill patients should be able to choose when they have suffered enough. Certain illnesses have multiple symptoms resulting in a slow and agonizing death, constant pain with no hope of relief, medicine eases the pain but does not rid patient of pain. Every human should have the right to escape unnecessary pain and suffering. No human should have to endure after the body has given out and loss of body functions are gone.

Patients families suffer from just as much pain as the patient themselves, just having to watch powerlessly and know there is nothing they can do to prevent loved ones anguish. High stress levels are emotionally and physically draining to be unnecessarily drawn out. Financial worry is kept to a minimum, without worrying if the insurance will continue to cover and saving estates for patient's dependents. Patients are often informed that their insurance will not cover necessary treatment or have used all the yearly amount of coverage but will cover assisted suicide.

Patients are able to control when they have endured enough often before loss of consciousness or being on life support. With assisted suicide patients are less likely to attempt suicide alone, often ending up with a loved one finding a messy attempt, or worse ending up with a failed attempt resulting in a more painful condition that before. Assisted suicide is controllable so patient can choose, therefore preserving the last visual memory to be one as simple as them lying in a hospital bed, rather than at the base of a building. Parents should have the right to choose if there child is the one suffering from a disease that restricts quality of life.

The National Institute of Mental Health reports that in 2007 fifty seven percent of suicides were from firearms, and twenty four percent from suffocation. More often than not people attempt suicide several times if unsuccessful the first time. If there was an easier less gruesome way this could be avoided. Individuals' with debilitating illnesses, who feel that the suffering is too much to bear should have the right to choice to end their life. After a lifetime of making choices that affect a person's life why not allow them to have say over the ultimate choice of when to die. It is not only fair but selfish to allow a critically ill person to continue to suffer because a neighbor or other non-family member feels this is morally wrong. With no universally accepted set of morals so it is left up to the individual, just because they request assistance in suicide doesn't mean they are lacking in morals, just that it's a personal preference.