Religious or moral beliefs might keep you from seeking the assistance of others to plan our own death, but should we hold others accountable because of the standards that we choose to live by? With adversaries of assisted-suicide opposing the legalization of such acts, we are forcing our beliefs onto others who prefer peace and comfort at their time of death. As Christians, non-Christians, philosophers, teachers, and students we all share one very key affiliation other than life and death itself. We are born with the freedom to choose what happens to us. With that being said it make sense that we have some preconceived right to choose whether or not we choose to be "put down," for a lack of better word, when we choose to be.
The biggest reasons physician’s assisted suicide should be accepted universally are that people that are living free will look a doctor straight in the eye and say, "excuse me sir but I do not want to live with this pain anymore." Of course they would have to go on record saying they want it, have a psych exam, or what have you, but that would be their choice and shouldn't be taken away. The second reason it should be legal is if the physicians can’t help people who are in a lot of pain and are going to end it some other way. These other ways will be uncertain because who knows if you will actually die or if you will just become hurt more? Joe Messserli sums up a key argument pretty well when he says,
"Tremendous pain and suffering of patients can be saved. Numerous ailments such as certain types of cancer result in a slow, agonizing death. Doctors have enough knowledge and experience to know when a patient's days are numbered. What purpose would it serve to suffer endlessly until the body finally gives out? Imagine what it would be like to spend six months vomiting, coughing, enduring pain spasms, losing control of excretory functions, etc. Then you must consider the psychological suffering; i.e. the knowledge that a patient knows he's definitely going to die and the pain is only going to get worse. Wouldn't it be more humane to give the patient the option to say when he's had enough?" (Messserli, 2012)
Messserli goes on to point out key things that support the yes argument. Some of the key points include but are not limited to, the patient has the right to die, patients can die with dignity and not have their illness reduce them to a fragment of what they once were, and a key one is that vital organs can be saved and used to save a person who has a chance. (Messserli, 2012).
Dr. Meyerson's dissenting opinion to the argument says that palliative care in the US is widely underused and should be strengthened to prevent such things from happening in the first place. While the Dr. is right you cannot prevent things like cancer when no one has a definite
