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Coleton McCardell
Lynn Taylor
English 1010
26 November 2012
Value of Life
Assisted suicide is a topic that not very many people like to discuss or talk about.
For some, it is hard talking about a person taking their own life by choice. However,
assisted suicide is an on going issue that needs to be settled. Some debate that euthanasia
is unethical others believe there is nothing about it that would make it unethical. Others
believe that assisted suicide should be legalized and it is against our constitutional rights
as Americans to not have a say how or when we die. The government should not be able
to control when a person wants to be pronounced dead. Others believe the exact opposite;
they believe that euthanasia is suicide whether it is done by a trained physician
surrounded by loved ones or done traumatically; it is all considered suicide; nature should
be the one to tell us when we die. My personal opinion is that assisted suicide should be
legalized and the government should not be able to tell us when or how we can die.
Human life has innate value, and that is why the laws of every civilized society
prohibit murder. That is exactly what euthanasia is killing (Torr 143). Many people that
believe that euthanasia is unethical are usually religious. Many of the world’s major
religions have recognized the immortality of killing. One of the Bible’s Ten
Commandments is “Thou shall not kill.” Life is a gift from God, and only God may and
can take that away. The Catholic Church has declared, “Only the Creator of life has the
right to take the life of innocent.” (Torr 143) Thus being the destruction of life is always
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wrong. Even if the killing is done by the persons consent (voluntary euthanasia), or out of
mercy, both of these acts are wrong because decisions about life and death are for God to
make. No one else has a say when or how someone should die. It is not a personal choice
since our bodies are not personally ours.
The non religious side to this viewpoint with euthanasia being unethical is killing
someone that could still have hoped to live. Right- to-die activists believe that some
people can and will choose assisted suicide in fear of the future and the pain to come. For
example, Herbert Hendin, executive director of the American Suicide Foundation tells a
story of a young boy who was diagnosed with acute myelocytic leukemia and was given
just a few months to live. In fear that the last months he had to live would be in hospitals
and in severe amounts of pain, the boy requested assisted suicide so that he could die
before he had to go through all the pain and suffering. He was not granted assisted
suicide and used the remaining months of his life to get close to family and friends. Two
days before he died he expressed on how much he would have missed out on if he would
have been granted assisted suicide. (Torr 143) Euthanasia may seem to be the easy way
out when it comes to long suffering and tremendous amounts of pain, but killing is never
the answer.
The complete opposite side of this argument is that euthanasia is ethical.
Euthanasia comes from the Greek term meaning “good death”. In the book A Chosen
Death: The Dying Confront Assisted Suicide. Lonny Shavelson tells about a lady named
Renee who had been suffering from a four year long fight with brain cancer. She
underwent two brain surgeries determined to beat the disease. Her tumor however came
back over and over again and eventually spread to her throat making it impossible to
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swallow any type of food or water. By this time she had stopped responding to treatments
and the doctors expressed to her that there was no hope in recovery. She then realized
that she wanted to die, but being too weak to do it herself she needed assisted suicide.
Her friends who respected her wishes procured for her a large dose of morphine, which
Renee administered to herself, that slowly stopped her heart. Renee’s friends performed
an act of caring and compassion. Euthanasia was the ethical choice here because Renee
was experiencing intolerable amounts of pain, she had no hope for recovery, she
expressed a sincere desire for assistance in dying, and she was surrounded by her loved
ones when she passes away. “I believe that any assisted suicide should always be seen as
a last option, as an extraordinary act that should be engaged in only when your physical
health and quality of life have descended to a point that makes further living intolerable.”
(Stephen Jamison, psychiatrist) Most patients who chose assisted suicide do this
specifically because they have nothing to look forward to but a few more days, weeks or
months of pointless suffering. (Torr 143) People should be able to choose if they want to
die or not. If they are going through huge amounts of pain, have been proclaimed
terminally ill by a physician and there is no hope for recovery, they should be able to
choose if they would like to end the suffering and pass on.
Another viewpoint it that assisted suicide should be legalized. The
government should not be able to tell an individual if and when they can die. It is a
personal choice and if someone is terminally ill they should have the option to whether
they want to die or not. No one else can tell them they have to die and no one can tell
them they cannot. Also assisted suicide is our constitutional right. In Vacco vs. Guill,
the U.S Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution does not guarantee a “right to die”.
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The court overturned a 1996 ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals declaring
New York State’s ban on assisted suicide unconstitutional. In the second Circuit Court’s
decision, Judge Roger Miner had determined that the ban violated the equal protection
clause of the fourteenth amendment, which declares that a state cannot “deny to any
person within its jurisdiction the equal protection laws.” It was said that New York had
violated the fourteenth amendment by treating two similar classes of people unequally
(Egendorf 221) Terminally ill people on life supports systems were legally permitted to
refuse treatment, which in result was ending their life. Whereas terminally ill people who
were not on life support systems were barred from taking measures to end their lives.
Judge Miner agreed that the law violated the constitutional rights of the terminally ill
people who were not on life support systems. Thus from this case it is shown that we do
have a right to die if we so choose, otherwise it goes against our rights to be treated as
equals as those people who are on life support systems. If they can chose to end their
lives by no longer being on the machine then other people should be able to end their
lives as well since the constitution states that everyone must be treated equal. “The right
to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness includes the right to die with dignity,” Steve
Dasbach, Libertarian Party chairman, he goes on by saying, “The power to decide how
and when to die should reside solely with the individual, not with the doctor, family
members – and especially not with the government.”
On the other hand, there are many people who do not believe that assisted suicide
violates the fourteenth amendment and our rights we have being American. This
viewpoint believes that others who believe that it goes against the fourteenth amendment
are expanding the concept of due process. They are just implying that they have the right
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to die because we, as Americans, have the right to refuse unwanted lifesaving medical
treatment. However, being able to refuse care does not mean we have the right to die
when we want. Being able to refuse care is giving consent that you know you will die if
you do not take the medicine that is being provided to save your life, it is not suicide.
There is nothing injected into the body to stop the heart from beating, it is simply the
refusal of care. (Egendorf 221) It is not against our rights to ban assisted suicide and it is
murder.
Personally I believe that assisted suicide should be legalized. I do not think it
is fair that the government can say when I, or any other person can or cannot die. I think
for it to be legalized however there needs to be a lot of work into it. For example, a
patient needs to be terminally ill and a physician needs to diagnose a patient of that. They
cannot just decide they no longer want to deal with the pain and ask to die, there has to be
no chance that they will recover. If a person is in so much pain that they cannot handle it,
and they are terminally ill, there should be the option of assisted suicide. I do not believe
that a doctor should push that on the patient though, it should be a personal choice.
Euthanasia is not a bad thing, a person dying peacefully surrounded by loved one is a
much better way to go in my eyes then being in so much pain and waiting for nature to
take its toll. I do not look at it as suicide if the person is going to die soon enough
anyway. Most people who are said to be terminally ill are given a time of how much
longer they can live with their disease, if they want to shorten that time and stop the pain,
I do not see anything wrong with that decision.
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Works Cited
Bowden, Thomas A. “Individuals Should Have a Legal Right to Choose Death. “Assisted
Suicide. Ed. Karen F. Balkin. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2009. Current
Controversies. Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 14 Feb 2011
Enouen, Susan W. “Legalized Assisted Suicide May Lead to Legalized Euthanasia.” Life
Issues Connector (July 2007). Rpt. In Assisted Suicide. Ed. Karen F. Balkin. San
Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2009. Current Controversies. Gale Opposing
Viewpoints In Context. Web. 4 Nov 2010.
Egendorf, Laura K. Assisted Suicide. Current Controversies. San Diego, California:
Greenhaven Press Inc., 1998. 221. Print
Jamison, Stephen. The Right to Die. Brookfield, Connecticut: The Millbrook Press, 1993.
128. Print.
Shavelson, Lonny. A Chosen Death: The Dying Confront Assisted Suicide. New
York, New York: Rockefeller Center. 1995. 224. Print.
Torr, James D. Opposing Viewpoints Digest. Euthanasia. San Diego, California:
Greenhaven Press Inc., 1991. 143. Print