Should Assisted Suicide be an Option?

Assisted suicide, also known as Euthanasia, is the painless killing of a patient suffering from a terminal painful disease/sickness which is performed with the assistance of a physician or doctor by being injected with lethal drugs causing a painless death. The problem is that patients and physicians cant agree on whether assisted suicide should be legal or not because majority believe that people deserve the right to decide on whether they want to consider assisted suicide, while others conclude that the legalization of assisted suicide will be the cause of widespread assisted suicide among the terminally ill. If the two opposing sides dont come to a compromise, then many terminally ill patients, who dont want to deal with the pain and thought of passing at any moment, cant do so by choosing assisted suicide. An agreement the two sides could agree coming to is asking the courts to situate boundaries on the reasonability for why a patient can consider assisted suicide. For one requirement, the terminally ill patient should be required to take a mental evaluation to help identify if they are stable to figure out if the patient is abusing assisted suicide. Another requirement would be, if the person is predicted to pass away in six months or less then, the patient should then be given this option. The third option being that the courts should make the final decision on whether or not the person is allowed to go commit the assisted suicide.

The first compromise the two opposing sides could come to is doing a mental evaluation for the terminally ill patients who choose to do assisted suicide. The mental evaluation would happen before the patient goes through with the process of assisted suicide and would help with reducing the amount of vulnerable patients who go with assisted suicide by determining the true intentions of why the patient would choose to do so. For example, if a patient is rational enough to come to terms with their illness and has recognized the suffering their illness can bring, then this would be the ideal state of mind. However, if the patient is depressed and is not in the right state of mind to go through with assisted suicide, then they could not do so. This solution could help figure out which patients are the vulnerable and easily manipulated. This can also help reduce the widespread assisted suicide of the vulnerable, which is what most people are afraid of.

Another solution that the two opposing sides could come to an agreement upon is if the person is predicted to pass in six months or less. This solution would work by diagnosing the patients with their illness or state and the amount of time they have to live. Once the patients figure out what their diagnosis is, then they can inform their doctor on whether or not they want consider assisted suicide as an option. This solution has already been implemented for states who have legalized assisted suicide. This solution will also be able to prevent the widespread use of assisted suicide.

A final solution for the opposing sides to come to is to eliminate the doctors from the decision making process and let the courts handle the decision on whether or not a terminally ill patient is allowed to go through with assisted suicide. This solution could help with knowing the patients made the decision on their own and were not pressured into choosing assisted suicide by their doctor. This solution contributes to both sides by allowing assisted suicide and by helping the vulnerable patients make their own decisions so they are not manipulated or pressured into a decision that doesnt align with their personal choices. Taking the doctors out of the decision making process will help prevent that situation from happening by eliminating the bias the patient has towards the doctor and vice versa. For this solution to come into play though, it needs to be implemented as a law to prohibit doctors from having a say in whether or not a patient decides on assisted suicide. Having only the courts decide on whether or not a patient can go with assisted suicide could help prevent manipulation of those who are indecisive. Even though the doctor is out of the decision making, it does not eliminate all manipulation. But, should still be considered a way to help eliminate most manipulated.

Assisted suicide should be legal because it could help terminally ill patients be relieved of their terminal illness. Three solutions that could help the two opposing sides of assisted suicide come to an agreement is: a person should be provided with a mental evaluation for the patient who chooses this option so that the assisted suicide is not abused by people who can be treated, if the person is predicted to pass on in six months or earlier, they should be allowed this option, and the courts should decide whether or not a person is allowed to go through with assisted suicide. These are the three best solutions for the two sides to come to an agreement on because it favors both sides in multiple ways.

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