Assisted Suicide
Uploaded by brownboy on Oct 01, 2006
An attempt at suicide is often a challenge to see if anyone out there really cares. People tend to feel alone in this world, that they often find the need to do something excruciating to gain the attention of loved ones. If society legalizes “assisted suicide,” the message perceived by a suicide attempter is not likely to be “We respect your wishes,” but rather, “We don’t care if you live or die.” Assisted suicide seems, at first blush, like a good thing to have available, but on a closer inspection, there are many reasons that legalization is a very serious mistake.
Almost all individuals who commit suicide or come close to the act of suicide have mental problems. This means that few people, if any, simply sit down and make a cool, rational decision to commit suicide deliberately. In fact, In one study conducted by Dr. Eli Robbins of suicides occurring in St. Louis, Missouri, approximately 93% of those who committed suicide suffered from affective disorders such as depressive and bipolar disorder. Another study also showed that during the period of committing suicide, individuals tend to see everything in “all or nothing” terms, causing them the urge to commit suicide even more. Many of these so called “suicide attempters” are ambivalent and their actions to commit suicide is more of a cry for help rather than a wish for a fatal remorseful outcome . These suicide attempters have a chance to save their life, but legalizing “assisted suicide” would literally degenerate that probability.
If legalized, physicians will have the right to legally assist suicide attempters in killing themselves. This act would not only inevitably increase the number of deaths caused by suicide, but will also cause the public to lose its confidence in the medical professions. If physicians get into the business of assisting people kill themselves, people would not feel safe being checked by physicians just for the simple fact that they had part to do with the loss of a patient. Although I believe it should not be legalized, in some cases it should be utilized. For example, when a terminally ill patient cannot be alleviated in any other way, the patient should have the right to end his or her life if the pain of a disease or a medical condition becomes too intense. An example of this is the shortness of breath that occurs in a patient dying...