Should Assisted Suicide be Legalized?

Right up there with abortion and stem cell research lies another controversial life or death issue: assisted suicide. If you ask anybody their opinion on the legalization of assisted suicide, you're bound to get a strong reaction. There are countless moral and legal arguments for and against assisted suicide. And as this practice becomes legal in more and more places, people are being forced to take a side on this hugely controversial issue.

The Arguments For

No matter what your views on assisted suicide may be, you probably acknowledge that there are many good arguments for allowing people to decide when it's their time to die. For one, many believe that, as people have control over their lives, they should also be allowed control over the manner of their deaths. Many also believe that death is a personal choice, and that allowing somebody to die rather than suffer incredible amounts of pain is the compassionate thing to do.

Many terminally ill patients can decide on death by simply refusing to receive any further medical treatment. One point that many assisted suicide supporters make is that, as these patients have a way to control their own destiny, terminally ill or suffering patients for whom refusing treatment would not mean death should be given another option. And since suicides will take place with or without the law on their side, an open, effective, and painless option is the best for everybody involved.

The Arguments Against

For most of those who are opposed to assisted suicides, the argument is generally more black and white. Because taking a life is immoral, assisting somebody to die even when terminally ill or in great pain is also immoral.

But there are also practical (rather than moral) objections to assisted suicide as a whole. Because doctors can't always be 100% correct when determining how much life a person has left, some intentional deaths may be unnecessary and waste a life. In addition, many worry that assisted suicide would reduce the public's confidence in doctors, as well as open patients up to potential abuse. In the case that a patient has no family or is a drain on the medical system (or, in countries without health care, is unable to pay his or her medical bills), many worry that a patient may be pushed into opting for assisted suicide.

How Doctors Feel

Assisted suicide is not a new issue; since medicine as we know it has existed, doctors have chosen distinct sides on administering death to their patients.

In general, most doctors tend to be against the legalization of assisted suicide. They often refer to the Hippocratic Oath as part of their argument. As part of this oath, doctors must not "give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it." In the U.S. state of Oregon, a recent law was passed legalizing physician assisted suicide. But of the state's doctors, 67% said that they would refuse to assist in a suicide if asked. And, according to surveys, those that have actually helped a terminally ill patient to commit suicide did so with great reluctance.

Like abortion and other similar issues, assisted suicide is a vastly personal topic, and which side you come down on will have a lot to do with your background and religious beliefs. Many question whether or not the government should be able to legislate morality; if laws should exist to protect those that do not wish to be protected. But others believe that opening the door to assisted suicide might be a little like opening up Pandora's Box. Once that door swings open, you never know what unintended consequence might come drifting out.

In the end, assisted suicide is a vastly personal decision, and even though most people feel very strongly about it one way or another, their opinions are legitimate and completely their own.

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