Life is precious, and it should not be taken lightly. One is fortunate enough to be born as a human being, but we tend to take our life for granted. In the case of terminally ill patients, the desire to end their life is very high. They become demotivated from life and want to end it by opting for doctor-assisted suicide. Assisted suicide is the act of intentionally assisting or encouraging another to kill himself (Griffiths, 1995). However, it is often not the right option as there might be hope at the end of the tunnel. Terminally ill patients should not have the right to doctor-assisted suicide, as they did not choose to be born at their will, hence, should not choose either whether they should die at their own will.
People opt for assisted suicide so they can die with dignity without being a burden on their family and friends, even though it reduces the value of human life ("Canadian government: Assisted suicide demeans the value of life", 2017). The focus of doctors and family members should be to show the brighter side of life to the patient. They should not be made to give up hope of survival. They have not chosen the right to give birth in this world, and hence should not be made to have the right to end their own life (Benatar, 2010). Terminally ill patients are the most vulnerable members of society. They are sick and disabled and if we allow them to end their life, there are chances that they might lose hope of reviving themselves and take an easy route of ending their lives. Additionally, the doctors might not be the best person to understand the mental state of the patient and might misjudge their anxiety and stress as their desire to end life. The suicidal thoughts of such patients should be counseled and eradicated, and not merely injected with lethal medicines to help them end their lives. This could also result in the rise of death rates each year, because of the assisted suicide option.
It is painful to see a person dying a slow and painful death in front of them, but it could also lead to people having less patience for patients suffering from incurable diseases. Ending one’s life is the easiest thing to do, however, it could also lead to a trend wherein terminally ill people are easily write-off and hospitals are in a hurry to vacate a particular berth. It also induces insurance companies to terminate the patient’s life with the motive of saving money (Benatar, 2011). Hospitals would be the ones who would readily support assisted suicide, since, the berth cleared could be sued by some other patient (Richardson, 2017). This would bring extra money for them, but it is also a loss of hope for the patient’s family. They might be pinning their hopes on taking the patient back home after getting cured. Assisted suicide will lead to the family members being miserable and suffering from their loss. They lose hope and are scared for life with the memories of the loved ones they lost.
Doctors often give up hope on their patients’ revival and consider it best to end their pain and suffering by helping them to suicide, but one should not forget that doctors have the moral responsibility of keeping their patients alive. By agreeing to assisted suicide and ending a patient’s life also means that the doctor has denied him the right to live and in the process, has also violated his moral obligation of saving the patient’s life (Seay, 2005) Doctors take an oath of protecting their patients to their best ability. But by assisting the terminally ill patient they violate this oath and indulge in an immoral act of killing someone, which is against their first promise for self-restraint. This is nothing less than a murder, as doctors have been kept in the first place to save lives and not end one. They should keep trying in the end to revive a patient and cure their illness. If the doctors indulges in this moral act of helping someone to end their life, people will stop believing in doctors and lose their trust in them.
To conclude, assisted suicide for terminally ill patients should not be allowed, as it denies them the right to live. It also violates the moral responsibility of the doctor’s to save their patient’s lives. It also allows the hospital, to empty the berth to be given to another patient, thus, increasing their hospital business. The insurance companies also benefit, as it saves them money. Further, by opting for assisted suicide, the value of a human life is undermined. It amounts to murder and is also unethical to help someone end their life. Terminally ill patients are sick and disabled members of society, and helping them to end their lives leads them to lose hope and take an easy route to ending their lives.
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