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Originally Posted by Bunk
I also find the slippery-slope argument against doctor-assisted suicide really flimsy as well. As if doctors and people are just going to go about killing people willy-nilly. It seems there are pretty straight-forward limitations and protections that can be put in place to prevent (very likely extraordinarily rare) cases of potential abuse.
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The slippery slope argument gains traction, IMO, from the notion of where do we draw the line on what can be treated (for the lack of a better word) in this fashion. In other words, why is one disease eligible for doctor assisted suicide and another is not when the patient could be in the same amount of pain and suffering as another individual. One thing to remember as well is some people have a higher pain threshold than others.
While in university I wrote a paper on euthanasia and I came to the conclusion that there was not a good scholarly argument for euthanasia. Generally the argument for doctor assisted suicide boils down to having compassion for the patient suffering from the terminal illness. Having compassion for others is a good thing; however, I do not believe compassion should be the sole reason for enacting policy.
You could make an economic argument for doctor assisted suicide, i.e. it is cheaper to kill them than to treat them, but that is just horrible and only something a monster would consider.
