Assignment 16 Elle Varner

Lethal illnesses have plagued the population throughout history; some of which have treatments, some not.  Many of these illnesses leave individuals bedridden, essentially waiting for death.  Put in this scenario, is the choice between life and death really yours?  

Euthanasia, or assisted suicide, is defined as the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy.  In the majority of the United States, this is illegal.  But why? Many claim that the reason for the abolishment of this practice is due to the fact that when terminally ill patients are faced with the choice between life and death, they are in a weaker mental state.  Although this may prove to be true, euthanasia is the best means for ending pain; it ultimately is (or should be) our choice; and it puts an end to psychological suffering.   

It seems to be that the only humane, compassionate, and rational choice, is to make euthanasia legal.  Today, patients who are in substantial amounts of pain are unable to request assisted suicide simply because they are said to be in a "weaker mental state".  For the last five years of her life, Matthew Hayes' grandmother didn't want to live.  She was battling heart disease and renal failure.  After surgery, she contracted a bacterial infection that prevented her from being able to take care of herself.  She couldn't even safely leave her own home.  She told her grandson that she wanted to die happily, with "at least some dignity left".  But because euthanasia wasn't an option where they were living, she was forced to continue suffering.  When the end came, she was unable to say her goodbyes, and she passed while she was unconscious, her face clenched up in pain; exemplifying why these individuals deserve the choice to end their suffering.   

Not only do these patients deserve the choice, but the choice is also their right.  All people have the liberty right, which does not exclude the right to end their lives.  Forcing the terminally ill to live their lives in agonizing and intolerable pain changes their "right to live, to an obligation to live." A well-known psychologist, Peter Singer, says, "Just as preference utilitarianism must count a desire to go on living as a reason against killing, so it must count as a desire to die as a reason for killing." Singer is explaining that because the principle of respect for autonomy tells us to let individuals live their lives according to their own decisions and guidelines and without judgement and coercion, we should use the principle of autonomy to respect the choices of people who decide to use euthanasia.  This extends into the argument that there is a difference between killing, and letting die.  Because the patient is requesting euthanasia, it is no longer considered murder; instead, it is the process of letting them die, or taking the individual out of their misery.  The individual has the right to be taken out of their misery.   

Suffering for long periods of time can have extremely detrimental psychological health effects.  Many of those with terminal illnesses experience symptoms such as anxiety attacks and nightmares about their illness and about death.  These symptoms are almost always paired with terminal illnesses, and can cause the overall health of the patient to deteriorate, leading to increased anxiety. This creates a cycle that always gets worse and has the same inevitable fate.  Some sufferers claim that the anxiety that comes with their illness is worse than the actual illness, which is why they should be given the option to take themselves out of the cycle before it worsens.   

All things considered, I believe that assisted suicide should be an available option in the remaining 46 states.  Nobody should be denied the fundamental right to end their suffering, and euthanasia is the solution to this problem.   Euthanasia can help sufferers die with dignity; and in the end, we have the right to live, so why shouldn’t we have the right to die?