A Person Has the Right to Die
Nowadays the issue of euthanasia constitutes a basis for debates between adherents and rivals of assisted suicide. On the one hand, people with incurable painful diseases such as cancer or mental disorders may not desire to live as much as possible due to the sufferings associated with the final stages of their illnesses. On the other hand, various social and religious activists claim that the individual should not be permitted to die in any case other than when nothing could be done to save the patient. Physician’s aid in dying should be legal in order to let those who wish to terminate their sufferings meet their end, while the legislations should provide specific barriers for the instances when one’s ailment is compatible with life, but he or she is exposed to depression or other negative mental state. This is the case for perfect essays on this topic.
Euthanasia is a procedure when the person with the incurable disease takes the medicine to die. The complex of actions is usually confirmed by the doctor; besides, injection or other form of insertion of poisonous substances should be prescribed by the medical specialist. Assisted suicide is used in cases the individual feels pain and does not want to suffer from it until the very death. In this event, the adoption of regulations for euthanasia is important, as they offer the legal framework for healthcare providers to execute euthanasia and for their patients to seek for assisted suicide. Moreover, the issue concerns the problem of the human right to dispose his or her life and avoid serious pain as well as alternative kinds of suffering.
Very often rivals of euthanasia claim it to be another form of suicide and emphasize that the society should not accept the desire of people to terminate their life. However, most individuals who resort to euthanasia are not willing to die because of having physiological issues such as depression. Instead, they wish to relieve pain and other negative manifestations of their diseases. In this case, euthanasia can be regarded not as a suicide, but as a medical procedure, which can help the patient to avoid the distress. Nevertheless, it leads to demise, as it is the only way of assisting the person in restraining the development of the ailment and degradation of the organism.
For sure, assisted suicide should be considered a conscious choice of the sick, and the doctor who determines to accept assisted death is to ensure that the patient realizes the consequences of this option. Primarily, one should be able to make any decisions and have a clear mind. Moreover, the individual should not be inspired to die by the third parties. Additionally, it should be proved that the person has no opportunities to recover, but the disease will progress. In this case, the physician has to suggest all the available methods of treatment including the experimental ones. Only perceived rejection of the patient is to be taken into account by medical professionals when they agree on approving the assisted suicide.
Therefore, it is important that the bill legitimizing assisted death should contain the provisions to make sure that the person is aware of all the options and has no chances to become healthy. For example, it can be justified to introduce the system of mandatory re-examination of diagnoses of the patients willing to undergo the procedure of euthanasia. In fact, there are instances when medical specialists are wrong with diagnoses, and the task of the effective legal system is to reduce the opportunity of such a situation to arise. Furthermore, the laws are to make specific requirements concerning the legal capacity of citizens to take the decision about euthanasia. For example, if the disorder may preclude the person from normal living, but it will not cause death in the nearest future, no euthanasia is to be permitted. On the other hand, when the individual experiences degradation of brain, the patient has to be informed about the development of the disease in advance. In this instance, it should be allowed to determine at which stage of the illness one will be subjected to assisted death prior to it.
Another important issue is that in most cases, euthanasia can be beneficial for the insurance companies. Due to assisted suicide, they can be relieved of the necessity to cover the costs of treatment. Thus, one can predict various manipulations with assisted suicide from the side of the firms willing to reduce their expenses. However, the system of re-examination of diagnoses as well as the legal procedure of acceptance of assisted death are supposed to prevent such situations. Moreover, euthanasia should not be practiced in cases other than the person enquires about it.
Nevertheless, rivals of euthanasia assert that it may increase the rate of suicide among the population in the areas where assisted death is permitted. They claim that laws shape the culture and make the society aware of the cultural norms actual within the community. In this instance, adoption of the procedure of assisted suicide can become a sign for individuals that the state accepts the suicide as a common practice. However, in the states of America where euthanasia has been legitimate for the last twenty years, there was no observable growth of the number of suicides that would exceed the level of the probable statistical error. Besides, there is a tendency that suicides occur in certain areas more frequently. Nonetheless, it has no connection to legalization of assisted suicide.
At the same time, even in the areas where euthanasia has become legal doctors are afraid to execute it and refuse to assist the sick. In this case, one can see a dilemma about the freedom of the patient and the doctor. On the one hand, the individual should have the right to receive aid by means of suicide if it is legalized and confirmed by all respective bodies responsible for the regulation of healthcare sector. However, the physician can be unwilling to kill the patient on purpose, as it may oppose his or her personal views and religious beliefs. Therefore, people have to be granted with the opportunity to address a medical professional who is able to provide this service, while those clinicians who are reluctant to perform euthanasia should be dispensed from it.
Furthermore, one should consider the issue of the price of the medicines for assisted suicide. When the process of legalization started, the cost of injection was about several hundred dollars. However, today it fluctuates from three to four thousand dollars. The firm producing injections decided to make the popular medicine more expensive. Nevertheless, nowadays it is unaffordable for a significant portion of potential patients. Hence, the rise of prices of such medical substances should be restricted by the state to prevent manipulations of pharmaceutical l companies.
In conclusion, the problem of assisted suicide causes many arguments among the population, but euthanasia should be made legitimate. Primarily, every person should have the right to choose whether to live or to die in case of having the incurable painful disease. In addition, the task of the state bodies is to develop the legal framework to avoid different kinds of manipulations with euthanasia and make sure that the choice of the individual to seek for assisted suicide is conscious.