The Moral Permissibility of Medically-Assisted Suicide

Despite medical advances the effects of disease, injuries, and old age will continue to occur. While cures have been found for some medical conditions, others continue to take a toll on patients. Although treatments can ease the suffering, they may not eliminate it and in some cases can cause more suffering. Using many articles and texts, I studied the reasons and consequences for someone to be medically euthanized. While the population seeking this route is small, it is steadily growing. The primary reason to consider medically-assisted suicide is suffering from a terminal illnesses or old age. This suffering prevents them from living a simple independent lifestyle. Physicians should offer medically-assisted suicide in such cases. States such as Washington, Oregon, and Montana have laws allowing patient’s to pursue medically-assisted suicide. I argue in favor of having the option of medically-assisted suicide available to patients who are permanently disabled by their terminal illnesses