Carla Courtney
Essay – First Place
The issue of assisted suicide may be sensitive to some because of misinformation, unfounded fears, or even religious beliefs. Once addressed in a logical, unemotional manner, those concerns should dissipate leaving one to view the act as a kind, moral, and necessary
choice when the situation warrants; and those that assist in the process can be judged not as villains, but as true care-givers. Assisted suicide can be viewed as a positive, logical, and humane act to end suffering from pain, to allow comfortable passage to death, and to ease both the patient’s and his or her family’s emotional pain and financial burden.
This is an age during which medicine and technology have advanced, not necessarily to the point of cure for many diseases, but to the point to be able to sustain a person’s physical
existence. However, having the ability to do something does not always mean it is the right action to take. Because of these medical advances, many people choose to enact a Living Will instructing their families, physicians, and hospital staff not to sustain them on life support. In some respects, this is little different from those seeking assisted suicide. We are allowed the choice to die. This same choice should be available to any person, not just in the case of life support sustenance, but also in cases of incurable and horribly painful diseases.
Opponents often misrepresent the issue in order to politicize it and instill fear. They propose that acceptance of assisted suicide could lead to genocide of the physically or mentally
impaired. Their misrepresentation includes the implication that legalization will result in the termination of life for all elderly or infirmed. This could not be further from the truth. Those States that have enacted laws allowing assisted suicide ensure that the laws adequately address patient counsel and consent. In other words, the patient has to be of sufficient mental capacity to approve the procedure. This protects the senile, mentally incompetent, and chronically depressed, among others. Assisted suicide is specifically for those individuals who have a life-long, incurable, debilitating illness and cannot by law be used as an instrument by which the helpless are murdered.
Religion has placed a moral stigma on all suicide including that which is legal and
humanely assisted. For many, to wish for death is seen as a rejection of the gift of life from a loving God. They trust that their God is a benevolent, merciful, and loving being. Further, many religions instruct that life does not end but continues after death. Therefore, it seems at odds that this loving deity would prefer we allow another human being to suffer horribly and long when it is in our means to alleviate that suffering at their request. It is more logical to believe that a loving and caring God would desire us to help the suffering to cross into death rather than to stand by idly watching them waste away in pain for years. Most religions would agree that death is the inevitable end to this life for all creatures. Some religions would agree that death is simply a passing or rebirth to a new life. Whether the end or the beginning, it should not be feared, and just as the attendant assists in birth to this life, an attendant should be allowed to assist in the transition to the next for those requiring assistance.
The emotional and financial toll on families of chronically ill patients can be devastating. Often bankruptcy is a requirement for social assistance with medical costs, so the family must first exhaust all resources before any financial aid will be given. Additionally, should the terminally ill have a life insurance policy, it must be used to offset medical expenses upon that person’s death. It is a horrible position in which to place a sick person: that of knowing that not only is he or she a physical burden to the care-giving family, but is also responsible for his or her family’s fmancial ruin. Knowing there will be no cure, and without the option of assisted death, one can linger for years in pain, requiring constant care, and suffering depression and guilt for having an illness for which he or she may not have been responsible.
Assisted suicide is not such a foreign concept to grasp when we realize a parallel in treatment can be drawn from our concern for our pets. Most Americans love their pets fervently, showering them with love and attention in the form of specialty foods, veterinarian care, their own furnishings, toys, and comfort objects. When a beloved pet reaches an age where bodily functions begin to cease, becomes ill and unable to recover, or is hit by a car and is in excruciating pain, we euthanize. We love our pets and cannot suffer to see them in pain or discomfort; therefore, when it is determined that our pet has no hope of recovery, we lovingly and tearfully allow our little family member the dignity and mercy of a peaceful death. The choice is never easy, but it is the responsible choice to make and the most loving, humane way to treat an animal. So it should be for our human family. When one no longer has hope of recovery, when one has no quality of life due to chronic pain, and when it is that person’s sincere desire to be allowed to die, he or she should be afforded the same respect and concern for comfort as is given to our pets.
If a person is in a terminal position, he or she should be given the most humane care and treatment, even if that treatment includes release from pain through death. To deny someone the option of assisted death is selfish, heartless, and inhumane. To grant the request for assistance in dying bestows power to a patient, otherwise powerless over his or her illness, and enables that patient to die with dignity. Assisted dying allows the patient to plan the event, making it a gathering of family and friends to weep, to celebrate, to say farewell, and to share that moment of final departure from this world and entry into the next.