My Life My Choice
Every human has the right to live in this world. In our everyday lives we see people struggle to survive each day without knowing what is going to happen tomorrow. It is not wise for someone to end their own life just because they did not want to struggle or because they gave up with life. But once there is nothing else that they could do or whatever they do is not going to help either themselves or others then they should be given the choice of ending your life without pain. If a person is dying and cannot go even an hour without someone else watching or helping them then they should be offered a peaceful death than making them live a painful miserable life. Everyone has the right to decide what to do with their own life as long as their decisions does not affect others in a negative way, so by supporting assisted suicide one can show compassion and humility by giving them a choice.
Oregon was the first state to legalize physician assisted-suicide, âDeath with Dignityâ. It was passed on November 8th, 1994. Physician assisted could be defined âas the prescription or supplying of drugs with the explicit intention of enabling the patient to end his or her own lifeâ (Euthanasia). The Oregon state officials had to take a vote to decide whether or not to make legal and it was a close one. The officials passed the act with about 51 percent supporting the death with dignity which is really low. The law made it so that the only people who could make the criteria were people who have only six or less months until expected death, at least eighteen years old and they should be a resident of Oregon State. On a survey that was conducted with the physicians in Oregon state, it was  âfound that 21 percent of Oregon physicians had received a request for physician-assisted suicide in the past year and that 7 percent had written at least one lethal prescription at a patient's requestâ(Euthanasia). As of right now there are only four states that have legalized physician assisted suicide. Washington was the second state to pass this law. Montana and Vermont are the other two states that think that people who are dying should be given a choice about how they should die and a chance to die with dignity. What most of the people does not know is that assisted suicide has been practiced in different parts of the world even though it has not yet been legalized over there. In Netherlands âeuthanasia and physician-assisted suicide have been practiced with increasing openness, although technically they remain illegalâ (Euthanasia).
Assisted suicide is a method that someone could use to end their own life without any misery. If someone is suffering from a chronic illness that has been getting worse day by day and there is not anything that anyone could do to save them then they could use assisted suicide and âsaveâ themselves from all the suffering. On a survey that was conducted among the U.S citizens about âtwo-thirds of Americans (66%) say there are at least some situations in which a patient should be allowed to die, while nearly a third (31%) say that medical professionals always should do everything possible to save a patientâs lifeâ (âViews End-of-Life Medical Treatmentsâ). They could not only save themselves from all the suffering but also help their loved ones from constant pain and worrying that they have caused them unintentionally. Seeing someone who one love and care for suffer right in front of their eyes and not knowing what to do is one of the worst feelings in this world. Even if one is willing to take care of them the rest of their live, is it kind of selfish to make them suffer and make them feel bad about themselves. If someone who has been suffering for a long time and they wants to die before their condition gets worse the best thing you could do for them is not help them end their live without making them beg.
Even though assisted suicide is meant to be a good thing to help out people who are suffering, some people argues that giving people a choice to die is like taking all the hope they have. The medicines and treatments are now able to do things that were not possible few years ago and not even imagined could be done few decades ago. Â Andre said that âRapid and dramatic developments in medicine and technology have given us the power to save more lives than was ever possible in the pastâ (âAssisted Suicideâ). It is our job as humans to help others and save peopleâs lives. A doctor or any person working in the medical field is supposed to do anything that they could save ones live and not give up on them even if they give up on themselves. Our medical technology has âthe means to cure or to reduce the suffering of people afflicted with diseases that were once fatal or painfulâ (Andre). Most of the people who are against assisted suicide that disagree with this idea are because their moral does not allow them to support someone ending their own life. They believe everyone should take their chances and hope everything to get better as our medical technology is growing rapidly.
People who supported the officials on legalizing the assisted suicide law were the ones who were not being selfish but who were thinking about people who were suffering. It should be legalized in all fifty states making it easier for the people who just want to end their own suffering as well as their loved ones. Right now people who want to do physician assisted suicide have to relocate to one of the four states that does assisted suicide and go through a lot more procedures to become a resident of that state to get what they deserve. It is like making people suffer more than they already are rather than just giving them a chance to choose how they want to die. Someone who is dying would most likely want to have their family and loved ones with them as well want to be in a place where could call home. If enough people saw what assisted suicide meant to people who ask for it then it would have been easier for all states to accept it. People who try to convince others to support assisted suicide realize that âthe case for assisted suicide is a powerful one--appealing to our capacity for compassion and an obligation to support individual choice and self-determinationâ (Andre).
Brittany Maynard was a twenty nine year old woman who was married and trying to have a happy family. Everything was fine until she realized that she was suffering from a terminal cancer. âOn New Year's Day, after months of suffering from debilitating headaches, I learned that I had brain cancerâ (Brittany Maynard). Her family did everything that they could do to help her but there was not much that could have been done. âAfter months of research, my family and I reached a heartbreaking conclusion: There is no treatment that would save my life, and the recommended treatments would have destroyed the time I had leftâ (Brittany Maynard). As time went by her condition got worse and worse. Because the treatment that was recommended to her could only waste the time she had left rather than getting her better she decided to live rest of her life the way she wanted. Soon it was at the point where she could not look after herself so she started researching about death with dignity because she thought that it was the best option that her and her family had. They âhad to uproot from California to Oregon, because Oregon is one of only five states where death with dignity is authorizedâ (Brittany Maynard). She had to go through a lot of formalities and she had to face tons of legal issues to get approved for death with dignity even though she met the criteria for it. After overcoming all those problems she finally got what she want which is, she gets to choose how she dies. She said âI've had the medication for weeks. I am not suicidal. If I were, I would have consumed that medication long ago. I do not want to die. But I am dying. And I want to die on my own termsâ (Brittany Maynard).
If one cannot see why they should support assisted suicide then they could consider themselves being in a situation like that. If one asked themselves the question, if they were suffering from a terminal illness and their condition kept getting worse making the lives of their loved ones miserable as well as their own and there was not anything that could be done other than wait for your time to come, what would they want to do? Instead of not knowing when it is going to happen and looking for it every single day, if one knew when it is going to happen and knowing that it is going to be painless makes their life as well as othersâ lives peaceful. As Brittany asked âWho has the right to tell me that I don't deserve this choice? That I deserve to suffer for weeks or months in tremendous amounts of physical and emotional painâ (Brittany Maynard)?
