Assisted Suicide/Right to Death

Living in the modern world, people face many difficulties in their day to day encounters. Some are pushed to the point of being depressed, stressed out and having other mental illnesses developed. Unfortunately, it has become a common thing that some people cannot cope with the encountered difficulties any longer, and they wish to die. Death seems the best way out for most of the affected people, but how to undergo a voluntary death is always a significant issue for many individuals. Many people decide to commit suicide; however, this practice is always painful with a prolonged time of suffering until death. Due to the suffering of self-suicide, people opt for a better alternative that will end their life in the most effective way and with less suffering and pain.

The alternative they opt for in such a case is assisted suicide. In the assisted suicide, persons of sound mind, either ill or not ill, approach other persons (physicians, in most cases) requesting advice or a prescription of drugs, which can lead to subsequent death. On request, a physician prescribes the most effective set of drugs or advises other chemicals that the latter can consume to terminate their lives with minimal pain and with ease. It should be noted that physicians do not get involved in the physical administration of the prescribed set of drugs; they only give the best prescription to the best of their knowledge. On the contrary, a person administers the drugs to him/herself. This practice is challenged legally and is always surrounded by controversies and arguments. This paper will determine how and why the assisted suicide is a problem; it will also look at the possible outcome if nothing is done to prevent suicide. Additionally, it will propose the best solutions to the issue of assisted suicide and will make an attempt to justify it.

How And Why Is Assisted Suicide a Problem?

Assisted suicide is way different from euthanasia or mercy killing. In euthanasia, the physician uses a legal prescription to end the life of a person with a terminal disease (Friedman 6). Euthanasia is also administered if it is the only possible way to end the suffering of a person. However, assisted suicide is different; the affected person may be healthy, have many responsibilities and be full of energy. From the legal perspective, taking their life is only acceptable if they do it to themselves without any physical assistance.

Only because the physicians are not involved in the process of administering the prescription that leads to death, this issue raises numerous controversies. A study of the cases of 440 individuals who had visited doctors and had death wish prescriptions indicates that it is an extremely dangerous practice. According to the study, out of the 440 persons, only 40% had a successful death within the prescribed time and with less suffering while 30% of the individuals died with complications. Some of them had to suffer for more than a week before they died. The reason for the prolonged suffering and painful experience was due to mistakes made by the individuals when taking the prescribed drugs. Some did not take the full dosage while others did not even buy the correct prescriptions as advised. Such incidents prove that the practice of assisted suicide has turned to be a problem.
About the author: Thony Wilson is a master in English philology and histoty at California University. Tony is currently working as one of the best writers at the https://essaysempire.com He also studies feminine psychology.