Legalising Assisted Suicide

One of the questions many people think about when legalising assisted suicide is mentioned is if would it result in more people dying.

Research has shown that where it is legal, assisted suicide rates have steadily risen over the years. In America, the number of terminally ill people choosing to die by assisted suicide leapt by 40% in just one year. But why is it that this statistic is continually rising and should it be?

Dying isn’t a crime and every human being has a right to life, and with every right comes a choice. The right to speech does not remove the option to remain silent and in the same way, the right to life does not remove the right to choose when to die. Not only does the level of physical pain and psychological distress differ in humans, but it should be only the sufferer who can make decisions like these. For terminally ill patients, death is the inevitable and the choice for the patient therefore is not to die, but to cease suffering. Every human has a right to life, and with every right comes a choice. But what if it’s the choice that causes more harm than good?

When you choose to die, you have no second chance. Nearly 95% of those who commit suicide have shown to have a diagnosable psychiatric illness in the months leading up to their death causing the question to remains that if they had been treated for this illness, would they still have committed suicide? Many believe that to assist someone who hasn’t been diagnosed is depriving them of all choices they might make in the future, and is therefore immoral.

This idea of immorality is also the same as the fact that it is our moral duty to try to stop someone from wanting to commit suicide or be assisted. For example, you wouldn’t ignore a man threatening to jump simply because it is his choice, and you would not assist in his suicide by pushing him. In the same way, you should try to help a person with a terminal illness, not help them die.

However, dying is not a crime and neither is suicide. Society recognises that suicide is unfortunate but it seems odd that it is a crime to assist a non-crime. The fact that assisted suicide is illegal seems particularly cruel for those who are disabled by their disease and are unable to die and cease the suffering without assistance.

Moreover, for those who are in the late stages of a terminal disease, they have a horrific future ahead of them. The gradual decline of their body, the failure of their organs and the need for artificial support. In some cases, the illness will slowly destroy their minds, or if this isn’t the case the huge amounts of medication required to ‘control’ the pain will often leave them in an incapable state. At least 5% of terminal pain cannot be controlled, even with the best care – so surely it is more humane to give people the choice to choose the manner of their own end and have the assistance of a doctor to die with dignity.