Khavari 1

Ava Khavari
Mr. Bradley
Government/Period 2
October 23, 2016
The Right to Assisted Suicide
The right to assisted suicide is a huge topic that causes controversy all over the United
States. At present, about eighteen states across the country are deciding whether to make assisted
suicide legal or not. Debates go back and forth whether a patient should have the right to die with
assistance of a physician. Some people are against it because of moral and religious beliefs.
Others support it because they have respect and compassion for human beings struggling to live,
when they are tired of suffering and want to be let go in peace.In my judgment, assisted suicide
should be legal, because it relieves the suffering of dying patients, because extending human life
is expensive, and because it enables the person to retain dignity.
Assisted suicide should be legalized all around the United States because it relieves the
suffering of dying patients. A patient, who has been put on life support because something in
their body is not properly functioning anymore, should have the right tochoose whether or notto
die. As the patient endures pain day after day, a time may come when the patient wants relief
from the suffering. For instance, many cancer patients are given chemotherapy, which is a form
of medicine that can be deadly harmful to the body in large doses. As a result of this, the body
suffers horrendous pain, hair loss, and vomiting. Terminally ill patients should have the right to
assisted suicide because it is the best means for them to end the pain caused by an illness which
no drug can cure. A competent terminal patient must have the option of assisted suicide because
it is in the best interest of that person (The Right to Assisted Suicide). Taking drugs to cure pain
is not beneficial to the patient, and it can cause symptoms to worsen. Prescription pills are

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supposed to help patients over time, but in this case they do not. Instead they leave patients with
symptoms of depressionand even more excruciating pain. Many people believe that sick people
who will be dying soon because of medical conditions should not be subjected to prolonged pain,
and physician-assisted suicide is the ethical way to do it (8 Main Pros and Cons of Legalizing
Physician Assisted Suicide). People who are very sick and have a short time left to live should
not be in pain and should have a physician help them with their decision.In short, when dosages
of painkilling drugs are adjusted to relieve patients pain, there is little if any risk that they will
hasten death (Doerflinger, Gomez). Furthermore, many prescribed drugs are addictive. Once
you become addicted to a pill, you cannot stop taking it, and it does nothing but worsen your
symptoms. This is another example why terminally ill patients should not be on any prescription
pill.
Assisted suicide should also be legalized because extending human life is unnecessarily
expensive. Some people without insurance go to the hospital for one visit and end up with a
ridiculous, unaffordable bill to pay. For them, death relieves them not only from physical
suffering but also from the stress of excessive expense. They will not be seen as people who are
waiting to die but as human beings making one final active choice in their lives financially (The
Right to Assisted Suicide). The pain that the patient is experiencing should be relieved, and they
should not have to pay a fortune to be living unhappily. They can decide for themselves how to
make their painand expenses go away. Although, yes, it is very hard for the patients family to
see them in this condition, they want what is best for the person, and they do not want them to
have to suffer. In a dollar driven health environment, the inexpensive cost of assisted suicide is
a great concern, as it can be used as a way to reduce the amount of health-care dollars spent per
patient (Questions and Answers About Physician-Assisted Suicide). The cost to maintain a

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healthy life is $35,000-$40,000, which is a cost that could take some people a lifetime to pay.
8,500 people lost pharmaceutical coverage when the medically needy program was cut. But
beyond that we have another 100,000 who are going to lose their coverage on July 1 (Thorne).
When patients lose their coverage, the money comes out of their own pocket for every night they
spend at the hospital. Instead of paying so much for something ineffective, the money could
better be spent on the funeral to make it a happy, content ending for the family.
Assisted suicide should be the law because it helps to retain dignity. Nobody wants to see
a family member leave in such a horrid way, and they may not understand the kind of pain the
person is experiencing. If a family sees their loved one suffering from pain, then they should
realize that it would be beneficial for the person to be in peace. It can be unbearable to watch a
loved ones symptoms get worse over a long period of time. Once a family sees how their loved
one is suffering, that should be a sign that the best decision is to let the person go, if that is what
the patient desires. Guilt, regret, anger, and grief cause much suffering after the suicide of a
family member (Consumer Reports). Every family member goes through this heartbreak after
the suicide of a family member, and once it is done there is no going back. But it can help if they
realize that the patient is no longer suffering from pain and is living peacefully in heaven and
watching over everyone in the family. Family members were able to predict patients political
views on legalized PAS, and there was moderately high agreement among family members on
political views (Result Filters). Family members slowly begin to predict what could happen to
the patient if they let them continue to live, so they gradually come to the right decision.

Consequently, if we want our loved ones to retain dignity in death we ought to look at the lives
they lived (Rothstein). The people that we have chosen to become and the people with whom
we have chosen to spend our lives are what matters most.

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Assisted suicide is something that everyone has heard about; it is not new to anyone. It
has been a topic of discussion full of heat and hatred on both sides for many years now, and it
shows no signs of cooling down. For every argument on either side there is a counterargument. If
medical care cannot prevent suffering, the law should not prevent the patient from making the
final decision. Assisted suicide can also make the loss less painful for the family, because they
will be able to have a time to say their goodbyes.Denying miserable patientsthe right to take their
own lives can also be a violation of their religious freedom, because not everyone has the same
beliefs. Like freedom of speech, everyone should have freedom of action in this matter. If a
person feels the need to relieve suffering and be at peace, it is up to that person and nobody else
if whether assisted suicide should take place or not.
We should work to make assisted suicide permissible under the law, because it relieves
the suffering of dying patients, because extending human life is expensive, and because it
enables the person to retain dignity.A patient suffering from pain who knows doctors can do
absolutely nothing to fix the problem should be able to make the decision whether to participate
in physician assisted suicide. Patients who are compelled to fight until the end of their terminal
illnesshave to pay thousands and thousands of dollars for something that cannot be fixed.
Instead, the money could be spent on a funeral that brings loved ones together and honors the
patients life. It also helps retain dignity for the family by eliminating much of the negative
experience.They couldalso hold celebrations every year on the persons birthday by makinga
home cooked meal that was the patients favorite foodor by goingto the patients favorite
restaurant. Ultimately, the patient should have the final say on whether to fight the illness, or to
be at peace.

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Work Cited
"The Right to Assisted Suicide." The Right to Assisted Suicide. N.P., n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2016.
<http://www.lonestar.edu/rightto-assist-suicide.htm>.
"8 Main Pros and Cons of Legalizing Physician Assisted Suicide." ConnectUS. N.P., 06 Aug.
2015. Web. 16 Oct. 2016.
<http://connectusfund.org/8-main-pros-and-cons-of-legalizing-physician-assisted-suicide>.
"Questions and Answers about Physician-Assisted Suicide." Focus on the Family. N.P., 09 Oct.
2014. Web. 16 Oct. 2016.
<http://www.focusonthefamily.com/socialissues/life-issues/physician-assisted-suicide/questionsand-answers-about-physician-assisted-suicide>.
Consumer Reports. "How Does Physician-assisted Suicide Affect the Family?"How Does
Physician-assisted Suicide Affect the Family? N.P., 15 Oct. 2009. Web. 16 Oct. 2016.
<http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2009/10/how-does-physician-assisted-suicideaffect-the-family/index.htm>.
"Result Filters." National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of
Medicine, Sept. 2006. Web. 16 Oct. 2016.
<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16939847>.

Doerflinger, Richard M., and Gomez, Carlos F. "Killing the Pain Not the Patient: Palliative Care
vs Assisted Suicide." Killing the Pain Not the Patient: Palliative Care vs Assisted Suicide. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2016.
<http://www.usccb.org/about/pro-life-activities/respect-life-program/killing-the-pain.cfm>.
Thorne, Jean. "Economic Aspects of Euthanasia." Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2016.
<http://www.life.org.nz/euthanasia/euthanasiapoliticalkeyissues/economics/>.
Rothstein, Aaron. "All Death Is Death Without Dignity." Public Discourse. N.p., 23 Sept. 2016.
Web. 23 Oct. 2016.
<http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2016/09/17356/>.