Research Paper on Assisted Suicide

Should individuals, who are in immense pain or on the verge of death, have the ability to pass away due to causes that are unnatural? This is a question that has been debated for many decades, as to whether patients should be able to pass away when they choose, rather than to let the natural process of them passing away occur. This is an important debate because there are induviduals all over the United States deal with this, and it could be revolutionary (to an extent) if all hospitals and clinics could come to a consensus on if assisted suicide should be legal in the United States. If the patient is unable to disclose that they no longer want to be alive it becomes a different story. I personally believe that the process of assisted suicide should be allowed in most cases where the patient has the ability to give an answer and understand what they are doing.

Assisted suicide is known as a person that is very ill or suffering from a great tragedy, and having the ability to choose if they want to live or if they would prefer to be assisted by the doctor in the process of passing away. While some people have any easy choice in what they would prefer to do, others can struggle on whether they would or would not want to leave their family behind as well as other important things in their life. I always say people should have the option of assisted suicide; However, I’ve never had to experience what this looks like first hand. It’s also important to factor in how treatable their condition is. If the person has a 10% chance of living from all the surgery it could, in some ways, be more beneficial to the family members who would have to pay for the cost of the surgery if they did end up choosing assisted suicide. While choosing to pass away will come with its own price tag it would still be overall cheaper , and the patient would no longer have to be in pain.

It is important that people, pondering over assisted suicide, have a clear understanding of the causes and the effects that it can have temporarily and permanently on both the patient and their family members. While the pain of the individual suffering can be taken away, there are still many family members that become left behind and have lost a child, grandchild, uncle, mother, father ect. While the pain of the patient is gone, there are people that will suffer once they are gone as well. For some patients, they want to die to with a sense of dignity; However, there are certain aspects of one's life that may cause them to have a bias for or against assisted suicide. For example, if a patient or a patient's family members have certain moral values, survival of the community, perception of the other individuals, necessary paternalism, and religious based values. 

There is a case of assisted suicide known as the Dax Cowart case that deals with many ethical choices involving assisted suicide. Dax Cowart suffered a very tragic incident that faced the hospital with a medical dilemma on whether he should or not should live and have the choice to be able to die. The doctors also had to listen to the family members and their opinions on the issue since Cowart was unable to speak when he had arrived at the hospital. With all this being said, they forced him to live and not go through assisted suicide. In my personal opinion, I completely disagreed with what the doctors chose to do since the chance of him living was so minimal. He was clearly in pain and suffering and no longer wanted to live, and I believe it is important that people, in the hospital setting, have the choice to choose what they want for themselves, rather than the physician’s having complete control over the situation. My answer would stay the same, even if the circumstances were different in another case where there was a higher chance of them living.

While assisted suicide is legal in some states it is not legal in all which make the topic of assisted suicide controversial. Controversial conversations can be a great way to learn more information on a subject, and even have the ability to change your viewpoints; However, it is important to understand both the pros and cons of the situation and the overall effects that it can have on individuals and their family.  Like mentioned previously, assisted suicide should be legal if the person has lost all functions of a properly functioning body putting them in the state of vegetable, or they are going through something similar to Dax Cowart’s case. Dax had experienced extreme pain that he was not prepared for, and it put him in a life or death situation. It is important for doctors to understand where the patient is coming from and the decision they want to make, and to make the patient as comfortable as they possibly can. While the doctor may not agree with the situation at stake, it is not necessarily their choice unless it is illegal in the state in which they live.

The topic of assisted suicide has become a more well known subject over the past few years. This type of ordeal can help a patient feel more at ease and relieved if they know that they were able to live a fulfilling life and have the ability to leave on a high note, rather than their family having to watch them suffer over a long period of time causing the patient to lose all of their dignity. This is a subject that is important for people living in the United States to have a clear understanding of the severity of the subject. Educating does not necessarily mean that someone is for or against assisted suicide, but that the individual understands the consequences of the matter. If someone is faced with this situation of having to choose. If they are only receiving information from the doctors; they may end up choosing the wrong choice for them personally. For example, if someone is in a horrible car crash and is suffering from the worst pain they have ever experienced and has a 50/50 chance of living, there is a high chance they will choose to die because of the pain and the amount of suffering it is going to cause. On the other hand, someone may be in stage four of cancer, but still has an 80% of survival and beating cancer, but in the time being they have no energy and feel like they are no longer a justice to society, so they may feel pressure to allow assisted suicide even though the chance of survival is at a high probability. This simply states that peer pressure and what others think may play a high role in what people choose to do when they are faced with the life changing decision. 

In the United States, a total of nine states considers assisted suicide to be legal. Whereas, 41 states consider assisted suicide to be illegal, and patients should not be able to have a choice or say in what is being done to their well-being during this time. The nine states that allow assisted suicide go as follows: California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and Montana. Montana is the only state that legalized assisted suicide through court-ruilings, where as the rest of the states passed it through legislation. This is very important because many individuals don’t even have a choice of what they want to do with their body and well-being and are forced to put their care into a physician or doctor. While it can be understood why it is illegal in 41 states, it does not mean that it is the right choice for the State to make. In society today, so much of what individuals do is being judged and criticized by the government, and people have no control over so many aspects and decisions of their own life. In my personal opinion, people should at least have the right to choose how they decide to leave the world whether it be through life’s natural course or assisted suicide. The government should not be able to play this big of a factor in citizens' life that they have to suffer through (most likely) one of the most painful experiences that they have had in their lifetime, yet the government gets to decide how the events are going to play out. I will always believe patients should have the right to choose what they want for their body. 

The process of assisted suicide should be legalized in all 50 states in order for citizens to have a right on how they choose to die, rather than to be controlled by the government. Patients going through an immensely hard time in a loop of continuous suffering are in a constant state of struggle. No one should be forced to live through unbearable pain like Dax Cowart in his case against assisted suicide. While individuals will have different religious views it is important to consider all aspects before making a disclosure on what is going to be done. Assisted suicide needs to become a more important matter to the United States due to the amount of people it effects each year.