The Importance Of Assisted Suicide In Today's Society

This issue truly affects everyone in today’s society, especially Americans. With more and more states starting to legalize assisted suicide there are more debates and questions that develop. California is the latest state to pass the law, and later on this year it will be signed into action. Of course with any other law there are strict guidelines that go along with assisted suicide. The law will permit physicians to provide lethal prescriptions to mentally capable adults who have been diagnosed with a terminal illness and that will pass within six months (McGreevy). The Governor of California Jerry Brown really put himself in patients shoes when he himself had been diagnosed with an illness. Deciding to pass the law he voiced that this will give people who are also suffering from a terminal illness some comfort in knowing that taking control and ending their life the way they want is an option (McGreevy). Not everyone who decides to get the prescription will actually take it, and as Governor Brown said, it’s a comfort to be able to consider the option. People are arguing with Governor Brown because they believe that doctors should remain doctors and remember the oath they took, especially stating that doctors should not go against the Hippocratic oath. But many doctors come back with the fact that the Hippocratic oath is no longer updated with today 's medicine and for people to pretend that it is still up to date shows a true lack of compassion and disregard not only for medicine and it 's powers, but for the dignity of life (Zamichow). Assisted suicide is such a problem today simply because so many people see it as wrong. …show more content…
Society has come up with these ideas that there are people out there that are abusing the drug, and in investigating more, attention has been brought to the issue that it is true. There are some people out there that abuse the drug and think they can get away with it. For example, Gill Pharaoh at just 75 took her own life in Switzerland simply because she felt as if the older she got, the more of a burden she felt like (Harris). Instead of ignoring the people who may end up abusing assisted suicide, the focus should be on helping the older generation not feel as if they are a burden and see that their lives are still valuable. Not saying that anyone who has a terminal illness doesn’t have a valuable life, but they have pain and are suffering every single day and that is not how some people want to be remembered by their family members and loved ones. On the other hand there are people out there that will stop at nothing to end their pain and suffering. Zoe Fitzgerald Carter’s mother at just 76 years old decided to take her life into her own hands. She had Parkinson 's disease for over 20 years and decided that enough was enough. Originally, she met up with the Final Exit Network which was a secret network of volunteers willing to kill. The man she met up with had an idea to suffocate her with helium and a plastic bag over her head. Instead of taking this route to die she decided to starve herself, and overdose on morphine. It took three days for her to pass. Fitzgerald Carter wonders if the state they lived in allowed assisted suicide, could her mother 's death not have been so prolonged and less painful for her, and her family (Fitzgerald Carter). Death should not be prolonged any further than what it has to be. Patients who are suffering want to die with dignity and they do not want their families remembering them through their excruciating pain and suffering. Our Country …show more content…
Each year more states put assisted suicide on their list of things to discuss, and more and more states are beginning to have the conversation about the law which will lead to eventually having the law passed in all 50 states and even globally. If we bring more attention straight into to the eyes, hearts, and minds to each of the governors in every state, we could start a chain reaction and begin a movement that hits