Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide are Murder Essay -- Euthanas

Assisted Suicide is Murder    "If suicide is a right, then it is one that has remained undiscovered throughout the ages by the great thinkers in law, ethics, philosophy and theology. It appears nowhere in the Bible or the Koran or the Talmud. Committing suicide wasn't a "right" a thousand years ago, and it isn't one now. That's why most societies, including our own, have passed laws against it" (Callahan, pg. 71). Assisted suicide is murder! In all of history, "there are only three circumstances that have been an acceptable way for taking a life: killing in self-defense or in protection of another life, killing in war, and in the case of capital punishment, killing by agents of the state. This law doesn't allow anywhere in the United States the right for one person to kill another even if the latter requests it to be done" (Callahan. pg. 71). However, Dr. Jack Kevorkian has committed this last type of killing several times. In the Hippocrates Oath, a physician swears not to give poison to anyone, though asked to do so, nor to suggest such a plan (Biema). With the technology and advancements in medicine today, who is to say that a person's illness couldn't be cured within the next few months? Why should a person have to make the choice of ending his or her life if (s)he is unsure about a cure? How can someone else know if another person is really experiencing unbearable pain and suffering? Who gets to be the person who tells another that his or her life isn't worth living? Many persons who want to legalize assisted suicide probably never looked at the risks that could happen if assisted suicide is legalized. If assisted suicide was legal fifty years ago, we wouldn't have some of the advancements that control pa... ...t To Die?" Time . January 13, 1997 pgs. 60-61 Callahan, Daniel. "Physician -assisted Suicide Should Not be Legal." Suicide: Opposing Viewpoints. Biskup, Michael. ed. San Diego. Greenhaven Press, Inc.1992. Christensen, Damaris. "Court upholds Banning Assisted Suicide." [On-Line]. Medical Tribune . July 17, 1997. Available : http:// www.medtrib.com / issues / July 17/ Assisted Suicide.htm Downloaded: November 24, 1997 "Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide: All Sides." [On-Line]. Available: http://www.relgious tolerance.org/euthanas.htm #beli Downloaded: November 6, 1997 "Law Prohibiting Assisted Suicide Upheld." [On-Line]. Available: http://anaserve.com/~phb/suic.htm Downloaded: November 24, 1997 Potts, Stephen G.. "Euthanasia Should Not Be Legalized." Euthanasia: Opposing Viewpoints. Bernards, Neal. ed. San Diego. Greenhaven Press, Inc. 1989.