Physician Assisted Suicide Should Not Be Legal

In June 1990, Janet Adkins, who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease, was determined that living with Alzheimer's would be worse than dying. She sought out help of Dr. Kevorkian to end her life with a simple machine that he constructed. She ended her successful 54-year-old life because she didn't want to live with Alzheimer's disease. What Dr. Kevorkian did was in favor of the patient but not the best for the patient. Even though physician assisted suicide does not help the health of the patient but they have general acceptance among the public population. There right to die movement, supporting assisted suicide and euthanasia, has gained high-profile organizational support and 61 percent of all Americans believe physician-assisted suicide should be legal. However, Suicide has been wrong for basic moral beliefs through out the history and physician assisted suicide is no different. Physician assisted suicide should never be made legal for any reasons.

If the physician assisted suicide is legalized, patients might be highly vulnerable to abuse and death by physicians. Legalizing physician assisted suicide would mean that physician has the right to end the patients' life anytime patients wishes and there is no doubt that human beings will blur the boundaries between compassionate assisted suicide and murder and when they do, they will get away with murdering their patient. In May 2005, a general practitioner has been accused of trying to poison a patient by injecting her with insulin. Although not very common, there are physicians who try to kill their patients so they should not be given the right to kill their patients. Also, can anyone honestly argue that physician-assisted suicide will limit itself to voluntary candidates in an era of ruthless medical cost-efficiency? (Fuller)

Even if the patient wishes to die, "terminally ill patients seeking doctor-assisted suicide usually struggle with depression, guilt, anger, and a loss of meaning."(Charles J.) The patients cannot logically decide their fate in the time that they make the decision to end their life with physician-assisted suicide. They need time to go through different stages of grief. They also may worry about the practical effects the death will have on their life. They are rarely reasonable enough to make the life deciding decision. And since the terminally ill patients account for more than 60 percent of all physician assisted suicides, the physician assisted suicide should not be legalized.

Some argue that physician assisted suicide should be legal in case that the patient in too much pain that their pain cannot be controlled. However, the medical technology of today allows any patient to be free of mind-numbing pain if they wish. Most Americans believe that the physician assisted suicide should be available to the patients that are suffering severe pain worse than death, and since no patient has to suffer the unbearable pain how can physician assisted suicide ever be justified? Physicians often hold back on giving too much pain relievers since patients may develop some kind of addictions from it but when the patients are suffering too much pain, they receive the care they need. And according to Characteristics of patients requesting and receiving physician-assisted death, 2003, only around 35 percent of the patients who requested to physician assisted suicide. It is a comparatively small number out of all the patients who committed physician assisted suicide. There is no reason that physician assisted should be legalized in case of extensive pain of the patients.
Physician assisted suicide cannot be justified. To kill oneself or someone else is wrong, regardless of the motivation or circumstances. Every human being has a sacred and inviolable right to life, and true compassion for an ill person's suffering should be shown through companionship and support, not by helping the sufferer to die. Patients have the right to decline extraordinary means of treatment and a right to be free of mind-numbing pain. That is enough protection of the patients' rights. Even the terminally ill patients may choose to spend time wherever they want to. They should not be allowed to end their life and they should not have the option available to them.

Source Citations
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"Jack Kevorkian." Encyclopedia of World Biography Supplement, Vol. 19. Gale Group, 1999. Student Resource Center. Thomson Gale. 12 April 2006

"Legalized Physician-Assisted Suicide Would Damage the Physician-Patient Relationship" by Jon Fuller. Assisted Suicide. Laura K. Egendorf, Ed. Current Controversies Series. Greenhaven Press, 1998. Reprinted from Jon Fuller, "Physician-Assisted Suicide: An Unnecessary Crisis," America, July 19, 1997, by permission of the author.
Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Thomson Gale. 12 April 2006

"Assisted Suicide Distorts the Meaning of Mercy" by Charles J. Chaput. Assisted Suicide. Laura K. Egendorf, Ed. Current Controversies Series. Greenhaven Press, 1998. Reprinted from Charles J. Chaput, "Eugenics to Euthanasia," Crisis, October 1997, with permission from Crisis magazine. For subscriptions, call 800-852-9962.
Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Thomson Gale. 12 April 2006

"Characteristics of patients requesting and receiving physician-assisted death, 2003." Diane E. Meier, et al., "Table 1. Characteristics of Patients in Sample: Overall and by Type of Request," in "Characteristics of Patients Requesting and Receiving Physician-Assisted Death," Archives of Internal Medicine, vol. 163, July 14, 2003.
Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Thomson Gale. 12 April 2006

""Death and dying." World of Health. Gale Group, 2000. Student Resource Center. Thomson Gale. 12 April 2006