Argumentative Essay: The Morality Of Assisted Suicide

Assisted suicide is when a person who is terminally ill, (meaning a person with a disease that cannot be cured or treated and will most likely result in death), has the “incontestable right to humankind’s ultimate civil and personal liberty”. People have the right to die in a manner and at a time of their own choosing; medicine has brought many benefits to humanity, and it cannot entirely solve the pain and distress of the dying process when ill. People who live with great pain everyday of their lives are in likely need of doctor’s assistance for most of their lives, and this is where assisted suicide comes into play. Assisted suicide is when a doctor “prescribes voluntary termination of one's own life by administration of a lethal substance with the direct or indirect assistance of a physician”;

For example, Brittany Maynard (November 19, 1984 – November 1, 2014) was a woman with terminal brain cancer, which cannot be cured. She lived with unbearable pain such as constant headaches everyday of her life. She moved from California to Oregon where Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS) is legal and began taking prescribed pills from her physician. “My body is young and healthy; I am likely to physically hang on for a long time even though cancer is eating my mind. I probably would have suffered in Hospice care for weeks or even months. And my family would have to watch that.” Because her cancer was so severe, if her cancer progressed symptoms may have been decreased ability to move around, trouble speaking, loss of memory and ability to form new memories, seizures, and painful