Assisted Suicide, The Right to Die
by People have mixed emotions on whether or not a person has the right to kill themselves. Many religions teach that taking ones own life is wrong, but is it? In the wake of Jack Kevorian’s death we are reminded about assisted suicides in ending pain and suffering.
People have participated in suicide for thousands of years. Some used it as a way to get out of a painful life, some to get out of a painful death. People have even been known to use their suicide to kill others, such as the kamikaze pilots from Japan, and modern suicide bombers. Some suicides have been public protests, activist statements, such as when a person starves themselves to death to bring awareness to their cause.
Generally other people find suicide distasteful, and wrong, many religions insist that it is wrong. Why? Why is it that we euthanize our ailing pets but cannot give our elderly relatives the same right to end their life?
Surely we have the rights to our own life, irregardless of what any religion tells us, after all many people do not follow religion, and even among those who do they already break a few rules. If a person wants to believe that suicide is wrong for them, fine, but to impose it on everyone else is quite unfair.
Image via Wikipedia
Jack Kevorkian was born in Michigan in 1928, his real name is Jacob, he gained fame as the Suicide Doctor, being an advocate for assisted suicides. He was known for helping people who were sick and suffering to end their lives in a pain free method similar to what is done on pets. In 1998 on the show 60 Minutes he aired an assisted suicide tape in which he injected ALS patient Thomas Youk with a lethal substance ending his life – this being an assisted suicide, as Youk himself declared.
Unfortunately the rest of the world didn’t see the assisted suicide in the same like as Kevorkian and Youk and Kevorkian was sent to jail, finally being released on parole in 2007. A quote attributed to Kevorkian in regards to assisted suicide states “My aim in helping the patient was not to cause death. My aim was to end suffering, it’s got to be decriminalized”.
Jack Kevorkian just passed away June 2011, but others support his cause, people have been pushing for laws to be changed to allow physician assisted suicide and to decriminalize suicide in general (in some countries suicide is a crime, but in others, such as Canada, it is not illegal).
Some countries have realized that people should have more rights over their own life and death, the Netherlands has legalized physician assisted suicide.
One reason why legalized suicide, particularly for the elderly, is frowned upon is that relatives feel they have some right to want to keep that person alive. As well there is always a concern that a person would murder another and make it look like a suicide, which (to be fair) already occurs.
If it is okay for me to decide when my pet is to die, it should as well be okay for me to decide when I am ready to die.
On the whole, people who are not in pain should not have any rights to dictate to another person that they must continue living. Once life has reached a point where it is not going to get better, why should we force a person to continue to suffer for our own selfish sake?
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Post CommentRuby Hawk
On June 3, 2011 at 12:54 pm
I believe if a patient is suffering pain and there is no chance of recovery, it’s a mercy to let them go peacefully. It is no sin to release someone from misery.
Jimmy Shilaho
On June 3, 2011 at 1:12 pm
I admire this guy for what he did towards ensuring his clients’ right to die peacefully and painlessly.
webseowriters
On June 3, 2011 at 1:30 pm
good
Karen Gross
On June 3, 2011 at 3:29 pm
Good article – well presented. This is a topic which I have given a lot more thought since I joined the ranks of the suffering. Sometimes when I take painkillers, I do fight the temptation to take the whole bottle. It would be so easy – for me anyway. My family members complain a fair bit when I fall and need someone to pick me up on a Saturday morning (I have to wake someone up), but I don’t think my suicide would make them happy.
To make assisted suicide legal, however, is a much more complex matter. I have been following the news from the Netherlands, and they have definitely been sliding down that slippery slope that these things invariably develop when we deal with matters of life and death. There are no easy answers.
Mark Gordon Brown
On June 3, 2011 at 9:07 pm
just another imposition on society of one groups spiritual beliefs other another’s/
Tulan
On June 3, 2011 at 9:56 pm
I would say no if a person is suffering only from depression, but from a painful incurable disease, I say let the person go.
martie
On June 3, 2011 at 10:16 pm
My problem with Kovorkian was there was some good evidence suggesting that he convinced some of those patients to end their lives. I have no problem with someone helping someone who is wanting release get that release, but, if this man truly talked ill patients into ending their life to promote his cause then he deserved to spend a little time in jail.
clandestinef
On June 4, 2011 at 5:44 pm
Good to read from you again. Interesting…
PR Mace
On June 4, 2011 at 11:43 pm
Well presented points of view. I believe people have to right to chose death when they are in great pain from illness but not if they just don’t want to live anyone.
shettychamp
On June 6, 2011 at 2:52 am
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