People with terminal illnesses should have the right to doctor assisted suicide Assisted suicide should be allowed as a valid option for anyone who is suffering a terminal illness. People don’t want to live uncomfortably or without use of all the functions that they currently possess. Individuals should be allowed to make the decisions on what is right or wrong for them, and that includes living or dying.
Thus, people should be given the right to assisted suicide in order to end their suffering, reduce the damaging financial effects of hospital care on their families, and preserve the individual right and dignity of people to determine their own fate. For many people who with terminal or chronic illnesses that cause them constant severe pain may want to die peacefully instead of suffering until they succumb to their illness. It not only calls on doctors to make an unreliable prediction, but prescribes a pointless time limit: The longer the life expectancy the greater the patient's suffering.
The essential elements for legislation are that the condition is irremediable by medical treatment and the suffering is intolerable to the patient (Eric Gargett). Actually, it should not be up to a doctor or other family members as to whether a person should be forced to continue living. No one wants to be in pain or see their loved ones in pain. This is a very real fear people may have. If someone is suffering so badly that there is no point to his / her life then he / she should be given the choice and ability to end it.
It is certain circumstance where assisted suicide should be legalized in the case of LAU 2 someone no longer has any quality of life. Also, there are certain illnesses that are very horrible and painful to live through where even such strong drugs as morphine can do nothing. In this circumstance people should be given the freedom to doctor assisted suicide to ease their pains. It should be the choice of the individual first and foremost and then backed by their family before carried out.
In addition, personal right to a doctor assisted suicide is that we, as humans, should respect other people’s wishes and dignity. The Code of Health and Disability Consumers Rights 1996 Right, it states that every consumer has the right to refuse services and to withdraw consent to services. The right to refuse medical treatment under the Bill of Rights Act and the above Code is limited to people who are competent to refuse consent (James L. Werth and Debra C. Cobia). If someone feels their life is not worth living anymore and has thought carefully about ending their life then we should respect this decision.
Everyone has an obligation to relieve the suffering of his / her fellow human beings and to respect his / her dignity. Lying in hospitals today are people afflicted with excruciatingly painful and terminal conditions and diseases that have left them permanently incapable of functioning in any dignified human fashion. They can only look forward to lives filled with yet more suffering and deterioration. When such people beg for a merciful end to their pain and indignity, it is cruel and inhumane to refuse their pleas.
Besides this, people should have a moral right to choose freely what they will do with their lives as long as they inflict no harm on others. This right of free choice includes the right to end one's life when people choose. LAU 3 Furthermore, patients with terminal illnesses are not willing to be seen as a 'burden' on their loved ones. In 1991, a survey, conducted by the Boston Globe, showed that the main reason people with an "incurable illness who suffered a great deal of physical pain" would consider ending their lives was because they "don't want to be a burden" to their families.
They were not primarily concerned with the pain or even the restricted lifestyle (Knox, R. A). With today's rising health costs and the busy lifestyles, many people don't want to leave their families with the financial burden of long hospital stays and enormous medical bills that come with being ill for a long time. While patients realize the longer the life expectancy the greater theirs suffering, they prefer to choose ending their pains with a doctor assisted rather than alive, and that’s the way they want to show their loves of their families.
Hence, this should be a decision made by individuals with the help of their doctors and families, and should definitely be a right of all people. Finally, people with terminal illnesses should have the right to doctor assisted suicide. It is one of the most basic personal freedoms of a human being whether to continue living, and it is no one else's right to decide if another person should be forced to live. As long as the person requesting the assisted suicide is well informed and in their right state of mind, there is no reason for someone to tell them they are forced to live.
In many cases, the amount of excruciating pain that a person may be enduring could make life miserable, and should not be forced upon any one. For most people, the right to end one's life is a right they can easily exercise, but there are many who want to die, but whose disease, handicap, or condition renders them unable to end their lives in a dignified manner. When such people ask for assistance in exercising their right to die, their wishes should be respected.
