Physician Assisted Suicide: Do you believe it should be legal?

Do you think that physician assisted suicide should be legalized in the United States. Which means suicide with the assistance of a doctor, usually if a person is suffering from a terminal illness. Do you believe that this is right or wrong? And why?

There are a lot of physicians that specialize in doing this, and it's wrong. Instead of encouraging the said person to be strong in this troubled time they give no hope whatsoever and sometimes even persuade the person to give up.

My great grandma was in blistering pain six years before she died. The doctors expected her to die, and she told me they can pull the plug on her if that's what she wishes. She refused. I believe a big part of staying alive is having the desire to stay alive. She showed me strength I'd never seen before. She lived another six years and got to see my sister get married. I'm content with her passing.

I believe any form of suicide is NEVER the answer. Suicide is illegal in every form, and it can cause millions of problems for the family in the future. Especially if that person was in debt.

Your grandmother must have been an extremely strong woman, and I'm glad you were able to spend six more years with her. My mother/grandmother was told she wouldnt live to see my fourteenth birthday, and she held on long enough so see my eighteenth. The people that choose to hang on, in my opinion are heros. Because many people in this day and age, would just opt for the easy way out.

I do believe that Physician Assisted suicide is wrong, given the circumstance. There should only be some instances where a person should even be given that option. Because there is only so much pain a person can handle, before they are not able to die a peaceful death. But there is a lot of planning that needs to go into this. There needs to be guidlines so that someone cant just walk into a clinic because they're having a bad day and ask to be killed. Thats ridiculous.

Some of the guidlines that I believe should be present is that:
1. There is a documented illness; this means that the patient has been to a physician, a specialist, etc and has been diagnosed with something. I dont believe it should be anything less then a terminal illness because if you have a chance to recover then you shouldnt just give up, and should find the will to live.
2. The patient should have to see multiple doctors, and a psychiatrist in order to evaluate if this is the best option for them.
3. There needs to be more then just a verbal agreement; this will stop the "he said, she said" fact of the matter. Instead there needs to be a written agreement that states that this is what this person wishes to be done.[Inside this document there will be information on the person's disease, the stage of the diesease or illness, etc] This needs to be signed by the patient, a family member, the physician who will perform the procedure, the psychiatrist, and either a member of the hospital staff or one witness to verify that these documents are not forged and this is the true wishes of the patient. There could possibly even be a video agreement as well.

It will end up being a lengthy process, but I think that if this is what a person and their family truly wants then they will go through the necissairy means to get everything situated. Because I believe that if a person is unhappy[depressed] and in an extreme amount of pain and suffering they have the right to decide whether or not they want to continue with treatment or to die a peaceful death.

But I do not believe that a doctor has a right to decide for the patient. And if they do make this decision, and take someone's life then they need to be prosecuted by the law and their medical license needs to be taken away.

Alright, I've thought about this a lot lately and have even decided to change my answer even with my great grandma's story.

After a lot of contemplating and discussion with the philosophers, I believe in the right to commit suicide, period -- though I also believe strongly that we should promote anti-suicide messages and suicide prevention hotlines, and voluntary committals to mental institutions, and everything else we can possibly do to prevent suicide. Doctor-assisted suicide should come with a very serious set of safeguards to make sure nobody is screwing around with someone's life.

But when you get right down to it: we have the right to life. That means nothing if you don't also have the right to death. Without that, there is no choice involved in living, and therefore it isn't a right -- which I believe is wrong.