Assisted Suicide/voluntary Euthanasia

Debate 7th hour

Topic Proposal

Assisted Suicide/Voluntary Euthanasia

Resolution: The United States should administer a controlled system of assisted suicide.

* It is imperative to the resolution provide a fairly specific set of criteria to explain when assisted suicide would be legal and when it would not. For these reasons I decided that control of this should be given to the law system just as it is for sentencing a criminal to death. This would avoid the complication of murders going uncharged due to claiming that the person requested assistance in taking their life.

* This issue is very debatable and has two very evenly weighted sides to argue. There are so many different arguments possible on each side of the case such as its morally wrong to do this, or it's the people right to choose to die etc. The fact that the majority of people considering this are terminally ill people. These people only have a horrific future ahead of them; shouldn't they be allowed to choose the manner of their own end, and die with dignity? It can also be argued that it is our moral duty to stop someone from committing suicide, so in the same way you should help a person with a terminal illness let help them die.

* This topic is very researchable. Many other countries including the Netherlands and the Northern Territories in Australia currently have Assisted Suicide legalized. There is a lot of evidence that can be found such as court rulings, philosophy, and medical journals. This issue is in a large part a moral issue so many different strategic attacks against or for this can be made.

* This is a very timely issue, because now we have such humane and painless ways of putting people to death. There is also no evidence to suggest that this topic will be resolved anytime in the near future. There have been many court cases lately that have dealt with people being charged for murder while they accused feel that they simply helped a loved one. This concerns not only people with terminal illness or their family, but everyone. This concerns everyone because it is a matter of deciding whether you as a person are in control of whether you live or not. How much control over your own life do you have?