Jessica Ayala

English 1010
Allison Fernley
Position Synthesis

The issue of whether assisted suicide should or should not be legal has been a rising issue and a
much debated and controversial topic. Assisted suicide is reserved for those who are terminally ill.
Some have called it unjust and not in the best interest of terminally ill patients. And others have said
that it allows those who are terminally ill to die with dignity and ease some of the tremendous pain as
they face the inevitable. On one hand people argue that assisted suicide is not right, and they assert that
assisted suicide should remain illegal. They believe that allowing terminally ill patients to use assisted
suicide that they are saying that the patients life is not worth continuing other treatment options that
though they do not cure nor will they change their fate, it can prolong their life and offer them more
time. The sources I am presenting are both for and against assisted suicide, their findings are interesting
and help form my reasonings of why assisted suicide should be legal.

Physician assisted suicide can work one article that really stuck out to me was byThaddeus
Mason Pope. In his article he talks about how Oregon has the option available for physician assisted
suicide, and he explains thoroughly about the process that someone has to go through in order to be a
candidate for physician assisted suicide. As Pope talks about a patient must first go through screenings
that make sure that the patient is healthy enough and mentally competent to make this decision of
assisted suicide. Also the patient must have two separate doctors confirm that they are terminally ill and
have a maximum of 6 months to live. The patient must than take two oral statements that are written
fifteen days apart from one another that state they want physician assisted suicide. They also need a
written statement that must be signed by two witness's at different times from each other. Once all of

these steps are complete there is a waiting period of fourteen days for the prescription of the assisted
suicide pill to be given. They have this waiting period in place to give the patient time in case they
change their minds. Pope talks about this further stating Since the Oregon Death with Dignity Act
was enacted in 1997, more than 1,100 people have obtained life-ending prescriptions, and about 750
used them. Most were dying of cancer. And most feared a loss of autonomy, dignity and decreasing
ability to participate in activities that made life enjoyable. In other words not every patient who is
qualified to use physician assisted suicide end up doing so, but having the option there gave them
power of their own lives that their illness had take away. I think that the process that is in place to
obtaining and being a candidate for physician assisted suicide is good and gives people more power and
options over their own lives and the quality of what life they have left.
Pope is very supportive of physician assisted suicide being made legal.

A different approach in addressing the topic of physician assisted suicide was taken by Wesley
Smith. He explained how the cost of assisted suicide is substantially cheaper than the cost of treatment
plans such as chemotherapy. Smith brings the reader to two cases of people who were on medicaid in
the state of Oregon. The state denied them assistance to help them pay for treatment but they sent them
a letter offering to pay for assisted suicide. It is alarming to see this, both treatment options should be
supported by the government not one over the other. In these situations the government is making the
patient have to chose to end their life even if physician assisted suicide isn't what is best for them
personally, because they are willing to help pay for that but not other treatment options that the patient
may desire.
There are some people who do not believe that assisted suicide is right and think that is should
remain illegal. After reading Thaddeus Pope's positive argument supporting physician assisted suicide,
I read another argument that was very different from Pope's view. Ira Byock believes that supporting
physician assisted suicide is allowing people to play God and determine when one can die.

Byock's article is very similar to another article I read by Miranda Barbuzzi. In specific when
Barbuzzi talks about how legalizing physician assisted suicide will permit people to be seeking it for
smaller and smaller reasons until we reach the point that people who do not want physician assisted
suicide will be given it to them as a limited option. Barbuzzi explains that this is a slipper slow of
logical fallacy in action. She also points out that when a patient is diagnosed and given a certain
amount of time to live that there are many cases where the doctors are wrong. I agree with Barbuzzi
with this, I have heard as I am sure many of others have heard how people live well beyond what
doctors anticipate. However, I believe that it should still be up to the patient to request physician
assisted suicide if they feel they can not endure any more pain.

Another article that I found relevant to this topic as well as informative is by Kathryn Tucker. In
her article she defended the right to die act. She talks about how those who chose physician assisted
suicide do not want to die to hurt themselves but rather to give themselves self-control. I agree with this
because as I mentioned before for some people other treatment options is the best route to go. But how
can we determine that is best for everyone? Arguing that other treatment options though doesn't cure a
patient it can possibly prolong their life. However, what is being left out of this argument is that the
quality of one's life even though being prolonged is not necessarily bearable. Being given the option of
physician assisted suicide where they can participate when they can still enjoy their family and
remember them, while they can still enjoy some life activities and still make that decision having their
loved ones around them. Whereas forcing someone into treatment options that will prolong their
sentence and they may slowly and painfully lose themselves until they succumb to their illness is not
necessarily prolonging the quality of ones life much as it is the quantity.

Most of my sources side with supporting physician assisted suicide and a lot of the articles are

centered around the patients. I think that this is important because it is the patient who will ultimately
be deciding what they want and what is best for themselves. Pope and Barbuzzi both mention a
screening process required that would help to control who can be considered for physician assisted
suicide. I think this is a great idea. The only source of mine that is completely opposed to the topic is
Byock. Others bring up negative components to physician assisted suicide such as, Tucker and
Barbuzzi but they are still supportive of physician assisted suicide.

To conclude I believe that physician assisted suicide should be legal. I think that it would
benefit those who want it. I have found this topic of assisted suicide interesting for quite some time
now, it is a topic that is personal to me because my cousin passed away from cancer a few years ago.
Watching him being given his death sentence when the doctors determined that there was nothing they
could do, and seeing him go through a year of pain as his body slowly and painfully shut down. It made
me interested in the topic of physician assisted suicide. It was not an option for him because it is not
legal in the state of Utah but had it been the benefits of it wouldn't have changed his fate however it
would have changed the amount of time and the amount of pain it took to reach the inevitable. Assisted
suicide can giver terminally ill patients the ability to die with dignity and to make that decision when
they are still mentally able to. I do not think that access to assisted suicide should be easy by any
means. I think as some of the sources I will talk about discussed, that there needs to be thorough testing
to determine and to be certain that a terminally ill patient is competent to make the decision of
physician assisted suicide. This topic is an important topic, there are those who are terminally ill and
want to proceed with treatment options that will not cure them, but will prolong their life. And for some
that is the right decision, but for everyone it is not. And I do not think that we should make that
decision for them and by not legalizing physician assisted suicide we are commending everyone to
resort to treatment options that force them to finish their death sentence in pain and losing themselves. I
believe that it needs to be monitored by a careful and thorough screening process, as well I think that

patients who are considering physician assisted suicide should be given all of their options of
treatments and looking into each of them and than determining what is best for them personally. I think
that not legalizing physician assisted suicide than we are forcing people to live out their death sentence
and we are making decisions for them that I think only they should be able to make.

Works Cited:
Pope, Thaddeus Mason. Oregon Show that Assisted Suicide Can Work Sensibly and Fairly.
The New York Times, New York Times Company.

Smith, Wesley. "'Right to Die' Can Become a 'duty to Die'" The Telegraph. Telegraph Media
Group, 1 Jan. 2009. Web. 24 Mar. 2015.

Barbuzzi, Miranda. Who owns the right to die? An argument about the Legal Status of
Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide in Canada Penn Bioethics Journal. Vol 10, Issue 1. April(2014) 1620. Print.
Byock, Ira Doctor-assited suicide is Unethical and Dangerous. The New York Times, New
York Times Compnay.

Tucker, Kathryn. "Give Me Liberty at My Death: Expanding End-of-Life Choice in

Massachusetts." 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.

Reflection:
1. Some feedback I was given was to personalize my paper more, I did my sharing a story my
cousins battle with cancer. Also it was suggested to me to put the I say in my paper after I
have presented my articles, rather than in my opening paragraph which I also did.
2. My think tank audience is the family research council. I used this source because they are
considered to be critical and harsh when it comes to topics like allowing physician assisted
suicide. Some people refer to them as a hate group. So I focused on them as my audience to
show research that can demonstrate why physician assisted suicide is beneficial to legalize.
3. I think I did an overall good job at meeting the grading criteria. I followed the assignment
guidelines by addressing an audience, having an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. As well
as I connected my ideas and presented them in a way to the reader that they could follow.