Assisted Suicide

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over this issue, is the question of morality. Is
it morally right for a doctor to assist in suicide? Many individuals feel that
it is not. It is thought if assisted suicide is legalized throughout the states,
it will encourage families with terminally ill relatives to push them
prematurely to their demise(Carter 2). This is an outlandish assumption. A
family that truly loves one another would not urge a family member to rush any
decision as momentous as ending one's life. If there is caring among the family,
the suicide would not take place until is was utterly necessary.
Two other important moral questions also arise from this issue. First,
do our mortal lives belong to us alone, are we sovereign over our bodies, or do
they belong to the communities of families in which we are embedded? Second,
will this right give the terminally ill a greater sense of control over their
circumstances, or will it weaken respect for life?(Carter 2)
The first question is ridiculous. ...

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is for the weak minded. If anything it
strengthens the patient's respect; a person in the last stages of a terminal
illness has endured some of the worst life has to offer. It takes away many of
his capabilities to perform what would normally be commonplace activities; in
short it has overtaken his life and dignity. The ability to perform legal
assisted suicide would help to replace some of the dignity which the illness has
extracted from a person's life. It would give the person the capability to end
matters on his own terms.
John Stuart Mill, one of the great philosophers of the nineteenth
century, derived a theory which is an excellent example as an argument for the
legalization of ...

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