I do have a problem with people committing suicide for some wrong/stupid reasons, but for people with terminal illnesses I definitely think it's their choice. So...should physician-assisted suicide be legalized?
YES.
Why:
Don't make doctors criminals for helping people escape painful terminal illnesses.
Even with the best of hospice care, people want to know that there can be some way to shorten a tortured dying process. It is not pain that causes people to ask for a hastened death, but the indignities and suffering that accompany some terminal illnesses such as cancer, stroke, and AIDS. A survey in the Netherlends found that the primary reason to choose help in dying was to avoid "senseless suffering." Hospice can make people more comfortable, can bring spiritual solace and can work with the family, but--as long as hospice is sworn neither to prolong nor hasten death--it will not be the whole answer for everyone. People should not have to make a choice between seeking hospice care and choosing to hasten the dying process. The best hospice care should be available to everyone, as should the option of a quick, gentle, certain death with loved ones around when the suffering has become unbearable. Both should be part of the continuum of care at the end of life.
We have the right to commit suicide and the right to refuse unwanted medical treatment, including food and water. But what we don't have--unless we live in Oregon--is the right to get help from a doctor to achieve a peaceful death. The Oregon example has shown us that, although a large number of people wnat to know the choice is there, only a small number will take advantage of it. During the first eight months of the Oregon "Death with Dignity" law, only 10 people took the opportunity to obtain the medications and eight used them to end their lives. In the Netherlands it consistenly has been less than 5 percent of the total number of people who die every year who choose to get help in doing so from their doctor.
In Switzerland, where physician-assisted death is also legal, about 120 people die annually with the help of medical assistance. There is no deluge of people wanting to put themselves out of their misery nor of greedy doctors and hospitals encouraging that alternative. People wnat to live as long as possible. There are repeated testimonials to the fact that people can ilve longer and with less anguish once they know that help will be available if they want it to end. Even Jack Kevorkian, who says he helped 130 people die since 1990, has averaged only 14 deaths a year.
To the credit of the right-to-die movement, end-of-life care has improved because of the push for assisted dying. In Oregon, end-of-life care is th ebest in the country: Oregon is No. 1 in morphine use, twice as many people there use hospice as the national average, and more people die at home than in the hospital.
It is gratifying that the specter of assisted dying has spurred such conern for care at the end of life. Clearly, if we take the pressure off, the issue will disappear back into the closet. No matter how good the care gets, there will still be a need to have an assisted death as one choice. The better the care gets, the less that need will exist.
My take.
