Assisted Suicide

Physician assisted suicide, or euthanasia, is an extremely controversial subject that has been a topic of debate for quite some time now. When people hear the words physician assisted suicide or euthanasia they tend to have a quick reaction. Society should really think about what euthanasia is and how helpful it could be. If people were to put themselves in patient's shoes that have HIV, terminal cancer or leukemia, or AIDS they would probably think a lot differently. A common term used in the media today, "the right to die" is in fact a right that we all have. It is not illegal to commit suicide. For most people, their life is in there hands, they are choosing every second whether to live or die. There are patients that are too weak to commit suicide themselves or they would. This is why these people want euthanasia; because they can't do it themselves.

Euthanasia should be a right that is given to a terminally ill patient. There are many people who are suffering from terminal illnesses such as: cancer, leukemia, HIV, and AIDS. There is hope for a lot of these people; but for some there is no hope, we all know there life is coming to an end. For these people, euthanasia would be the answer to their prayers.

Euthanasia should be a legal procedure with many regulations. Not everyone should be able to have this procedure. The first regulation would be that the patient is dying from an illness that cannot be cured. The second regulation would be that there is no hope for any recovery; basically, a "miracle" would have to happen. The third regulation would be that the patient has consciously and actively asked for the procedure more than one time over a period of time. This should not be a procedure that is granted immediately it should be well thought out by the patient and the doctor. If the doctor is willing to admit and agree that there is no hope for their patient to recover they should be able to grant them there wishes.

Public opinion for euthanasia and doctor assisted suicide has always been mixed. A poll that was taken by the Gallup Organization in Canada during July 1995 proves that people are starting to see the advantages of euthanasia. The first question that was asked was: "When a person has an incurable disease that is immediately life threatening and causes that person to experience great suffering, do you, or do you not think that competent doctors should be allowed by law to end

the patient's life through mercy killing, if the patient has made a formal request in writing?"

It is proven in this first question that the general public believes that cases of great pain and suffering deserve the right to choose euthanasia as an option to stop the pain. Three quarters of the people surveyed believed that the choice should be given to the patient.

The second question was about non-immediate life threatening cases "When a person has an incurable disease that is not immediately life-threatening but causes that person to experience

great suffering, do you, or do you not think that competent doctors should be allowed by law to end the patient's life through mercy killing, if the patient has made a formal request in writing?"

As you can see, when a case is not immediately life threatening, the general publics answer is mixed. The people who answered no may be thinking of treatment that has not been tried yet or treatment that may come in the future due to new technologies. Medical Advancements: During the last 20

years,