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Cheong, Seo Hyen 11314109

Assisted suicide: a hope or a murder?

Introduction

Many people today are suffering from illnesses. Some of them are incurable, and can be distressing to those who suffer from them. These painful sicknesses sometimes lead people to think of killing themselves just to free them from the never-ending agony. For these sufferers, a few doctors have suggested a solution to help them end their lives without any pain. This solution is called assisted suicide. Assisted suicide is the suicide of a terminally ill patient that involves an assistant, usually a doctor, who serves to make dying as painless and dignified as possible. This self-annihilation gives hope for sufferers, as well as their families who are also suffering as they care of patients. Some people raise opposition to this legal self-destruction because it is an act of taking ones own lifean act of suicide, even though the purpose of assisted suicide is to help free patients who are about to die anyway from their pain. Assisted-suicide debates still go on all around the world. A few doctors, patients, and patients families support assisted suicide, but the church and human rights communities still go against it. It is undeniable that assisted suicide has both its

advantages and disadvantages. A lot of countries still consider it illegal, but some countries have legalized assisted suicide. Considerable opposition has been has been raised by religious group, saying that suicide in any form is a sin. Unfortunately, none of those against assisted suicide do not have a solution that can replace the advantages given by assisted suicide, helping dying people be freed from their pain. In this argumentative paper, I will discuss the pros and cons of assisted suicide to provide information about its advantages and disadvantages, in order to help readers be more informed with both sides of the argument. Even though assisted suicide goes against the church and religious matters, it still gives a choice that offers a third opinion -another option for patients to choose when they are going die without pain- when people are facing death.

Brief History Assisted suicide has started by Jack Kevorkian. He is also the man who first mentioned the term, Euthanasia or Assisted Suicide. He is the most well-known advocate in the United States for the cause of physician-assisted suicide. Kevorkians another name is Dr. Death because he helped an estimated 130 terminal ill patients to kill themselves in 1990s. Kevorkian sparked a national debate in assisted suicide and argued that his actions have prevented suffering for patients in pain and it has allowed them to die with dignity. Other physicians and professionals thought his work as a violation of the medical professions ethical principles, affirming life over death. In 1999, when Michigan state court convicted Kevorkian of second-degree of murder, it finally ended a long debate between the court and Kevorkian.

Pros and Cons Nowadays, assisted suicide is a popular controversy between anti-assisted suicide and pro-assisted suicide. Physician assisted suicide has pros and cons why people support and go against it. The main benefit of assisted suicide is ending the pain of a patient who is suffering from a painful disease that will ultimately result in death. A lot of sicknesses give pain to their sufferers either through how the sickness progresses, or through the treatment given to try to control them (like chemotherapy for cancer.) If a patient cannot be cured, and keeping him alive causes him to suffer pain, then some will argue that he has a right to end his life. Assisted suicide also makes it easier for doctors and nurses to help other people who are sick but not dying. Patients who ask for assisted suicide are usually people who suffer from terminal diseases. They are going to die soon anyway, so why should they still be helped by doctors and nurses. Those could be helping others who can still be cured. John Hardwig, a Philosophy professor from the University of Tennessee, said that people sometimes have a duty to die. A patient with terminal sickness should not only consider themselves, but also their family and the people who love and care for them. If they are physically and emotionally tired or losing money because of caring for the patient, then the patient has a duty to die. Like how some people will willing go into dangerous situations to save a life, like a fireman, a policeman, or a soldier, a dying patient must be willing to die in order to help his loved ones.

Opponents of assisted suicide say that it is not necessary for a dying patient in pain to kill himself, since palliative care exists. Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering. Proper palliative care may be enough for people not feel the need for assisted suicide. Contradict to previous idea, palliative care cannot be a solution for chronically ill patients. It is true that palliative care can relive pain of patients through injection of morphine but it is still cannot save lives of terminally ill patients. Sufferers have to face death every day before death finally approaches them. It emotionally tortures families and patients. Also, chronically ill patients are people who cannot be cure with any type of medication and therapies. The patients do not have any reason to be take care with medication or therapies because there are no any cures for their sicknesses. Palliative care, instead of assisted suicide, gives burden to families. It is a costly and emotional torture for families of patients, too. Like what John Hardwig said, if families of patients are emotionally and physically tired, then patients have duties to die. The biggest fear about legalizing assisted suicide is that it would lead to other forms of medical suicide, including involuntary euthanasia. Involuntary euthanasia is ending the life of someone who is sick or in pain but does not want to die. There are fears that allowing assisted suicide would lead doctors to trick patients to accept death even though they can still be cured. It can also lead certain groups, like people suffering from AIDS, to be pressured to just accept suicide. For involuntary assisted suicide, there are some cases that are inevitable to precede euthanasia. An example from BBC is that a soldier has his stomach blown open

by a shell burst. He is in great pain and begs the army doctor to save his life. The doctor already knows that he will die in few minutes. Doctor does not have any painkillers so the doctor decides to shoot the soldier to free him from the pain. In this case, involuntary assisted suicide cannot be considered as a murder because the situation is terrible. There are no any drugs that can relive pain of a soldier and the doctor already knew that the soldier will die. This situation applies the same for terminally ill people. Doctors cannot do anything for patients. Only solution left is to let patients to die with dignity and without pain. For the concern with tricks of doctors, there might be some cases but it is not right to generalize that all doctors trick sick people. There is not even having specific research on tricks of doctors. Without any prove, it is wrong to say assisted suicide should not be legalized because doctors will trick patients. The church does not allow assisted suicide because it is an act of committing suicide which contradicts the teaching of biblical commandment, thou shall not kill. Pope John Paul II said, True compassion leads to sharing another's pain; it does not kill the person whose suffering we cannot bear. Also, the sacred congregation for the doctrine of the faith declared on euthanasia, which says, no one can in any way permit the killing of an innocent human being, whether a fetus or an embryo, an infant or an adult, an old person, or one suffering from an incurable disease, or a person who is dying. The church does not allow assisted suicide because it is still an act of killing but assisted suicide is totally different from committing suicide. Committing suicide happens to people when they are depressed and emotionally tired. Those people still have choices before they kill themselves but for assisted suicide, the situation makes

patients to decide to kill themselves. The pain makes the patients to not normally live and this makes them emotionally and physically tired. Also, the truth that they cannot be cure anymore gives a lot of depression. The church cannot enforce patients to not have assisted suicide because patients have their own choices to decide. The situations of patients are inevitable unlike normal people who commit suicide.

Conclusion Assisted suicide is an inevitable argument worldwide. However, this paper supports assisted-suicide because it gives freedom to people to choose when and how they are dying with dignity. Some people who are in desperate situations because they found out their bodies cannot function well or have incurable serious sicknesses, cannot decide when they will die and how much they will suffer in the future. The time when patients are waiting for their deaths, it gives them a lot of stress and fears. These feelings actually worsen situations of patients. Rather than suffering on the earth, it is better to die and free the sufferers from the endless pain. Even though there are many contradicting ideas, it is a fact that assisted suicide gives hope to some patients who have incurable sicknesses.

References:

Pickert, K. (March 3, 2009). A brief history of assisted suicide. TIME. Retrieved from: http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1882684,00.html Unknown. (n.d.). Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide. The Free Dictionary. Retrieved from: http://legaldictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Euthanasia+and+Physician+-Assisted+Suicide Unknown. (n.d.). Kevorkian, Jack. The Free Dictionary. Retrieved from: http://legaldictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Jack+Kevorkian Pretzer, M. (2000). Assisted suicide: should it be legal?. CNN. Retrieved from: http://edition.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/01/25/assisted.suicide.wmd/ Unknown. (2009). Pros and Cons of assisted suicide. The Week with First Post. Retrieved from: http://www.theweek.co.uk/politics/25333/pros-and-cons-assisted-suicide Unknown. (2014). Voluntary and Involuntary euthanasia. BBC. Retrieved from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/euthanasia/overview/volinvol.shtml Jerome Hamer. (n.d.). Declaration on Euthanasia. Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the faith. Retrieved from: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_d oc_19800505_euthanasia_en.html Unknown. (n.d.). WHO definition of Palliative Care. World Health Organization. Retrieved from: http://www.who.int/cancer/palliative/definition/en/ Unknown. (2014). Overview of pro-euthanasia arguments. BBC. Retrieved from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/euthanasia/infavour/infavour_1.shtml Volokh E. (2003). The mechanism of the slippery slope. The mechanism of the slippery slope. Retrieved from: http://www2.law.ucla.edu/volokh/slippery.htm