Assisted-Physician Suicide happens when a physician helps a patient end his or her own life in cases when the patient is suffering very much. This may sound a bit unprofessional on the part of the physician but it does happen in some very serious health conditions (Weir 3). The physician in this case will honor the request of a patient to end their own life, thereby prescribing a lethal drug that can help terminate a life prematurely. This brings one to the question whether it should be legalized or not. If it was legalized then there could be a solution to many patients suffering from terminal illnesses. The patient is the one who goes ahead to terminate life and not the doctor.
Every human being is in control of their own lives. This can be referred to as a fundamental human right because a person should be given room to choose to do anything with their own lives. In relation to disease and illnesses, the person should also be given room to determine the direction which their own treatment takes (Battin, Rhodes & Silvers 8). If people have control of their lives then they can choose to end their lives more especially to end their problems and suffering when they are tormented with the whole issue about health or illnesses related pain and suffering. If it is not possible for the patients to refuse to take their medication then they can be allowed to end their own lives so as to end their pain and suffering all together.
Death is considered to be one of the solutions towards relieving pain that is so unbearable. If it pleases the patient then the patient can be allowed to put life to an end to escape the realities of a long life full of suffering. This is when the physician comes in. this can never be equated to committing suicide but if it is done with the help of a doctor hen it can be equated to euthanasia (Gorsuch 21). Assisted suicides are very rampant and they do occur day in, day out, it is different to have it done in the limelight than in the dark. If it was made possible to perform it on the limelight it could have been far much better than it being done in the dark, because this way it will have been legalized.
Society has got its own standards of perceiving how people should lead their lives. Individual interest should also come first. But when a patient is undergoing so much suffering the same society should be very understanding about what to do in an effort to help the patient. If it means that assisted physician suicide is the only way out then so be it. Personal liberty calls for the respect of any decision a person makes concerning their own lives and society therefore needs not to poke fingers at any decision but to respect it (Battin, Rhodes & Silvers 32). This way, them assisted physician suicide should be respected if it bring forth the much anticipated solutions of ending suffering once and for all.
Terminally ill persons should be allowed to decide on what to do about their lives in a quest to end their prolonged deaths. In order to hasten death more so for patients, who are able to make sound decisions without influence from other people, assisted physician suicide is the only solution (Gorsuch 47). Pain leads to more suffering and if the pain is to be put to an end then it could have been better. If there is no form of treatment that can do so then assisted physician suicide should be the way out if only it could be legalized. The best way to go about addressing the issue of finding lasting solutions to the patient should be assisted physician suicide and that is why it should be legalized.
Works cited
Battin, M. P, Rhodes, R. & Silvers, A. Physician Assisted Suicide: Expanding the Debate. New
York: Routledge. 1998. Print.
Gorsuch, N. M. The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia. Princeton: Princeton University
Press. 2006. Print.
Weir, R. F. Physician Assisted Suicide. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 1997. Print
