Whether assisted suicide should or should not be legal is a hot
debate right now. Euthanasia comes from Greek and means “good death”.
Supporters of assisted suicide state that it should be allowed in
special circumstances for patients who have terminal illnesses which
creates an agonizing quality of life. A person should be able to make
a thoughtful decision of how they would like to spend the last moments
of their life. Those who are against assisted suicide often bring up
religious reasons, such as the fact the life is a gift from God and
that He is the only one who should be able to end a person’s life.
       I read an interesting essay by Derek Humphry, and advocate of
assisted suicide for over 20 years. In his essay “Why I believe in
Voluntary Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide”, he begins by stating that
there are at least two types of suicide. The first one is “emotional
suicide” in which a person is either depressed or so mentally ill that
they desire to take their own life. He is completely against this form
of suicide. But he argues that the second type of suicide, or
“justifiable suicide”, is a persons right as a means to speed up the
process of death if their quality of life is severely poor.
       A few questions to consider:
-How can a physician know if a person decides to end their own life as
a result of well thought out consideration or because of mental health
issues, such as depression?
-If it is currently not a crime to take your own life, why is it such
a bad crime to assist a person who is unable to take their own life?
-Is it ever unethical to continue to sustain a person’s life where all
hope of recovery or improvement of quality of life is lost?

Post your thoughts at the forum here.

Essay was obtained from: http://www.finalexit.org/lit-essays.html

Article by:

Dan Neumann

Current Events Committee