Can you help me with this Assisted Suicide paper?

Question

I am writing a paper on why I am for Assisted Suicide. However, I need to state why some people will be AGAINST it. I did that, and now i have to write a paragraph saying how this is wrong. Can you help?


This is the Paragraph for why people would be for it:

"However, there are many difficulties with the issue as well. In many cases, people with illnesses and disabilities would be poorly informed about their conditions and their future prospects. Therefore, the decision to engage in assisted suicide could not be made rationally. Currently, many patients with serious illnesses are poorly informed about their conditions and prognoses. Without this information, they cannot be expected to make informed decisions about suicide. Often, people are given unclear or misleading information about their prognosis or how long they are expected to live because health care providers simply do not know or are wrong in their expectations."

Answer 1

I had to write a paper like this last year. Things to think about: Is what they are saying about doctors true, or is the person leaning on worst case scenarios? If it is true, would that actually be a reason to not allow PAS or would it just show that steps to remedy that issue would have to be put in place before legalizing PAS?

(stay away from religious arguments...they really have no place in determining if PAS should be legal or not)

Other arguments against PAS involve the patients state of mind (can a person who is suffering be rational?) and that PAS being available would hinder advancements in pain management.

btw...you meant to say that was your against paragraph rather than the one for it....right?

Answer 2

I'm not sure that your paragraph for why people might be against it will stand up to scrutiny in many cases. For example, my husband has terminal cancer. He is very well informed about his condition, the overall prognosis, and so on. You are correct that no one knows how long anyone will live for sure, but they do know how deterioration will happen, about pain, about quality of life and so on, so most people who have terminal illness are well informed today - that may not be the case with people with disabilities. So I agree with a previous poster that you may have a stronger argument if you take the stand against assisted suicide for religious reasons, not medical reasons.

Answer 3

You could explain the point that just because some people will be misinformed doesn't mean that it should be ruled out for the people who are properly informed that wish to make that decision.

Having said that I don't believe in assisted suicide because of the commandment from God that we should not kill. I believe that assisted suicide is killing and therefore is a sin.

The argument against that point is that there are many sins that are not against the law, such as judging, adultery and worshipping false idols.

Good luck with your paper.

Answer 4

That is wrong on so many levels. I think some already play God by injecting people in a dying state with such heavy doses of morphine their bodies just give out.

I had a friend die last week who was fighting cancer for 10 years. She fought till her dying breath to hang on and her last words were "I'm not ready to die." Even in her heavily dosed state she wanted to live and nobody has the right to deny someone of that.

People can be put "out of their misery" till the end comes, and although I am sympathetic to the cause in some ways (nobody wants anyone to suffer) I just don't feel it's right for anyone to play God.

Legalizing it will just create the first step that leads to so much more in future, like whether to wait till the actual end when you have a million baby boomers ill and dying and not enough people to look after them all. Think of all the forgeries that can and will take place and then how others can make that decision simply to speed the process along, and don't think it won't happen.

Answer 5

I think you should focus on religious people as your main stumbling block to legalizing euthanasia. This paragraph you gave should be secondary to the religious squeamishness. (Christians, for example, consider suicide to be a 'sin' against their god, and they want everyone to have to adhere to their rules)

Make sure to give an overview of the purpose of law (to enable us to live together in peace without interfering in our 'inalienable rights' and such)

congrats on picking the right side to the argument.. remember you are only arguing for legalizing it. you're not necessarily outlining when it is and when it isn't the right decision for an individual.

Answer 6

Go to the library and borrow the book, "Final Exit", some very good reasons for. I would say the paragraph you have written (for why people would be for it) could be used against it.

Answer 7

It would be playing God. Only He has the right to decide when a person's time on Earth is up, and only He has the right to take life. He alone can give life and He alone can take it. To help someone take their life is like murder.