Pros And Cons Of Assisted Suicide

One of the most adamant groups in favor of assisted suicide is the Gay Men 's Health Crisis. They released the quote "The fact that the circumstances of the disabled population are, as a whole, far less than ideal in this country, and are likely never to be perfect, is no justification for depriving those who have a terminal illness of the right to end their suffering. These individuals are entirely capable of making rational decisions." They feel that even though a person may be destined to die, they can still make rational decisions and should be allowed to have their agony put to an end (Times 2).

But what about those in comas and permanent vegetative states, or those who are not mentally competent but still terminally ill? Don 't these people deserve the right to die also? An association called the Surviving Family Members in Support of Physician Assisted Dying took on this challenge. They proposed the question "How 'natural ' is it to die of convulsions and dementia? Similarly, how 'natural ' is death by

Another valid argument in favor of assisted suicide is the fact that while assisting a person in committing suicide is illegal, providing them with information on how to commit suicide is not (Flanders 41). Many books have been written (one by Jack Kevorkian) on the subject of suicide methodology. And know with the increasing popularity of the internet, methods on how to commit suicide is readily available to anyone with a modem. The argument is that if a person can be told how to commit suicide, then why can 't that same be person be aided in committing suicide. A wise man once said "Knowledge is power." By giving people the knowledge on how to commit suicide, aren 't we giving them the power to commit suicide. Providing someone with the knowledge to end their own lives is helping them to end their own lives, which is what assisted suicide is. Their death may not come in a bottle of pills or a loaded gun, but on bound sheets of paper or a