Physician assisted suicide is defined as "suicide by a patient facilitated by means or information provided by a physician aware of the patient's intent" ("Physician -- assisted Suicide"). This topic was highly debated by officials in our government that they decided to make it a state issue. After all of the voting only five states have decided right now to keep physician assisted suicide legal. However, my opinion is that all states in our country should make physician assisted suicide illegal. I think that because making physician assisted suicide legal allows and sends the message that suicide is the answer. In addition, a doctor should not have to make the decision of whether a patient should commit suicide. Doctors take a pledge to uphold all ethical standards and to do everything in their power to save their patients. This law clearly goes against this pledge and everything doctors stand for. Instead, physicians should be focusing on palliative-care to improve the quality of life of their patients. Physician assisted suicide is allowing suicide to be legal which is morally, ethically, and legally the wrong decision for our country. 

If physician assisted suicide becomes legal the leaders of this country are stating that suicide is the solution when in pain. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States for all ages and it happens every 12.3 minutes ("Suicide Facts"). Suicide is a difficult issue in our country to talk about because most people do not like to bring it up, especially the families of the victims. This often results in the tragedies being left undiscussed meaning others can not learn from their mistakes. When this continues to happen with an issue it becomes bigger instead of handling it. Most people who are depressed lose all hope of getting better so they think death is the only answer. Oregon is one of the five states that decided to make physician assisted suicide legal. Effects from making this law legal can already be seen in the state. Oregon's suicide rate is now 35 times the national rate according to a report from the Oregon Health Authority (Shen, Millet). Oregon's government is telling their citizens that suicide is okay and the negative impact is shocking. If assisted death becomes legal every state will be sending the same message to the depressed people who feel as if they have no where to turn. Overall, they are stating that when the pain becomes to much, suicide is the answer. 

Patients can often become depressed after being sick in the hospital for long periods of time.  They often feel as they are a burden and an inconvenience to their families. It can lead patients to feeling as if their life serves no purpose anymore. With the combination of everything, patients lose all hope and want to die. Advocate Life and Education Services is an organization that stands up for humans lives. Their mission is to promote the inherent worth and dignity of every human being. In a video made by the organization, the speaker is against Physician assisted suicide because they feel people who desire it are extremely vulnerable ("Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide FAQ"). Instead of allowing physician assisted suicide, doctors should be giving patients a reason to live. Even though this law only pertains to terminally ill patients, miracles still happen all the time. No doctor can predict perfectly the timeline of someone's death. There have been multiple cases of a patient who was terminally ill who ended up surviving their disease. If you offer that patient suicide, then it takes away all of their hope and they choose suicide because of the fear of death. 

If we spend more time and money on finding cures for diseases, then physician assisted suicide would not have to be an option to discuss. The money spent on terminating the lives of people who request it could be spent in ways to help them instead. Education for palliative care should be the focus of all people practicing in the medical field today. The World Health Organization defines Palliative Care as "an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual" ("WHO Definition of Palliative Care"). Palliative care should be the main focus for our country to improve pain management and end of life care for patients.  

Rachel Hargrave shared Liz's story of being diagnosed with advanced incurable kidney cancer. Liz decided to continue her life with the disease even though she lived in Oregon which is a state that made physician assisted suicide legal. She recognized that she could legally end her life at any moment. Her doctors talked about it with her and brought it up as a choice. However, Liz never considered this an option for her. She had four beautiful children and she felt lucky every time they were all together. After making his decision, she heard a lot that a person "losing ability is also losing dignity." If this is the case, then society pushes us to end life while its still worth living.  It encourages patients to end their life because it states that their life isn't full value anymore. The major issue here is the way society defines dignity. Liz points out the danger of "the moment we label suicide an act of dignity, we've implied that people like me are undignified for not ending our lives, or worse, we're a costly burden for society." Liz is surrounded by people that will see her suffer and that will be hard for her family but they will love and care for her until the end. Liz has decided that, "love is dignity" and she is going to face "death with dignity" (Hargrave). Liz has the mindset that every patient should have during their sickness. Liz ended her life happy, comfortable, and surrounded by those who love her.

Doctors shouldn't have to make the decision whether a patient is the right candidate for physician assisted suicide. Putting the decision of a person's death in a doctor's hands is not fair and it is not what the doctors trained for. Physician assisted suicide and abortion are often compared as the same issues but they are very different. Suicide can be and often is done without a doctor. Suicide unfortunately still happens without societies approval so America should still try to prevent it instead of sending mixed signals and encouraging it. Doctors studied and worked for years to learn how to save as many people as they can, by allowing physician assisted suicide to be legal it is going against everything they have ever learned. In the journal titled Physician-assisted suicide: the dangers of legalization two doctors discussed the reason why doctors should not have the responsibility to decide if the patient is a candidate for physician assisted suicide. It is difficult for these doctors to asses the terminally ill patients from the depressed patients. Herbert Hendin and Gerald Klerman both are psychiatrists who specialized in mental health. They agreed that most patients have suicidal thoughts and that it is commonly in response to the medicine they are receiving and can most often be treated. A thorough psychiatric evaluation for the presence of depression can change a patient's decision to want to die. These doctors believe that, "this is not an evaluation that can be made by the average physician unless he or she has had extensive experience with depression and suicide." (Hendin, Klerman) At most hospitals patients do not get this evaluation from doctors with that type of background. Most physicians do not have this ability and this could result in patients not getting the best quality advice for making the decision to commit suicide. 

Once this law is made to make physician assisted suicide legal there is no way to monitor it. It is difficult to make sure all of the doctors are making the right decision by helping a patient commit suicide. Doctors are also human and make mistakes all of the time. The Journal of the American Medical Association, reports that medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States at 225,000 deaths per year (Starfield). There is even a story of a sixty-six-year-old women who was misdiagnosed with cancer and was given massive doses of painkillers which ended up killing her. Situations like these are every doctor's nightmare. Eliminating physician assisted suicide would guarantee no doctors making the mistake of accidental suicide. Overall, doctors are not always right. Patients should fight until the end instead of choosing suicide. Major corporations are disagreeing with making physician assisted suicide legal for those reasons. American Medical Association's statement is "Physician-assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physician's role as healer, would be difficult or impossible to control, and would pose serious societal risks. Instead of participating in assisted suicide, physicians must aggressively respond to the needs of patients at the end of life. Patients should not be abandoned once it is determined that cure is impossible." ("AMA Mission & Guiding Principles"). American Medical Association agrees that this law would cause much more harm than good and would result in many patients not getting the care they deserve and need. 

Many people argue for physician assisted suicide to end peoples pain and suffering. However, with the new facilities that have developed and the new medications that have come out, pain is controlled better than before. Peter O'Neill is the general manager of Hospice South Canterbury which is a place for terminally ill patients to eventually die in peace. He feels that medical suicide is not necessary. His facilities help patients and their families come to terms with their death comfortably and without pain. All of the facilities services are offered free with insurance because Peter knows it is a hard time financially for families because of all of the previous medical bills. They offer therapists and counselors for patients and their families to find harmony in their death. Nurses are also on staff with assistance from volunteers who are they 24/7 to assist to any needs of the patients (Esther). 

Terminally ill Grace Hooke marked her 9th birthday in the South Canterbury Hospice bed full of joy. She celebrated with all of her family and friends surrounding her. They brought in a surprise gift that was a nine week old police dog that gave her lots of snuggles. Her parents saw her amazing determination that helped her stay alive to this day. Her mom continuously said how proud of her they were, "You have taught us so much in the past seven months - how to be better parents, how to be better people, and most of all how to carry on smiling and laughing through the pain" (Hudson). Without this facility her parents would have never had those final precious moments with their beautiful daughter. They have promised to "make the most of the time they had left with their daughter by creating as many memories together as possible" (Hudson). The attitude these parents have should be everyone's attitude towards terminally ill patients because they made the most of the situation they were in by bringing in positive light. 

 Some argue that if we allow the do not resuscitate order it is the same thing as allowing physician assisted suicide. The difference between the two is that with the do not resuscitate form the patient is dying of natural consequences on their own. With assisted suicide the doctors are killing the patient on purpose. A patient can also refuse medical treatment at any time if they so choose. They can choose to remain sick and die on their own, and the doctors will not interfere with this. Other people continue to argue that we live in an unrestricted domestic society and it is our right and freedom to be able to make this decision. However, we have the right to live but we do not have the right to die. If we all have the right to die it will put suicidal people who are vulnerable in high danger. We have to continue to protect everyone in our country by not sending the message that suicide is the answer. 

The last argument people make against physician assisted suicide is that it is inhumane to keep people in pain. However, with the new advances in medicine, doctors have figured a way to make patients comfortable in their final hours. Patients living with ALS, which may seem like a worst case scenario, have found a way to live a sustainable life. Mary Lyon, who works for the ALS association, makes a compelling argument against physician assisted suicide as she states, "There are patients in whom the ALS has remitted. There is an even greater number of patients in whom the ALS seems to burn itself out; these patients stabilize and remain in whatever state they had reached by that time" (Lyon). Only a couple of years ago, patient recovery seemed impossible. Now there are advances to help one of the worst diseases people suffer from. Mary Lyon argues that new research is being done everyday to make new discoveries, which will lead to finding the cure of ALS. If patients choose physician assisted suicide, they would lose the opportunity to be cured and return back to normalcy. 

They are clinics and centers around the country to help patients with ALS handle all of their needs. These clinics do not just deal with the disease; they help the families come to term with their situation. By doing this, they make sure everyone is at peace with death when it comes time for the patient to die naturally. Robert Miller, M.D., from the California Pacific Medical Center reports that, "Data on over 100 people with ALS who were enrolled in the ALS C.A.R.E. project suggest that most people die peacefully with this disease. Many patients were treated in hospice, and the quality of care administered in the terminal phase of ALS appeared to provide a high level of comfort, according to caregivers who were present in the last days of life," (Lyon). Although this disease can be frightening there is no reason ALS patients have to live with pain. Once the pain is handled most patients are happy to have more time with their loved ones and more time to come to peace with the fact that they are dying. They can live their final years of their lives comfortably and around the people they love instead of committing suicide. 

I strongly believe that physician assisted suicide should be illegal. Right now in the United States it is only legal in five states. The majority of states have made it illegal when they realized it was the wrong decision and did more harm than good. With the new medications that have come out patients are able to be comfortable in their final moments of life. The facilities for terminally ill patients have improved over the years. They work with the families to make sure everyone has made peace with the thought of death. Instead of committing suicide and sending the message to depressed people around the country that suicide is the answer, patients should die when the time is right. I encourage everyone to inform others about the issue and to press the government in their states to make sure physician assisted suicide is illegal. The main goal of our country needs to be that all states make physician assisted suicide illegal. 

