Suicide Is a Moral Right
Laws against physician-assisted suicide transgress the central principle on which America was founded. The Declaration of Independence proclaimed, for the first time in the history of nations, that each person exists as an end in himself. This basic truth--which finds political expression in the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness--means, in practical terms, that you need no one's permission to live, and that no one may forcibly obstruct your efforts to achieve your own personal happiness.
But what if happiness becomes impossible to attain? What if a dread disease, or some other calamity, drains all joy from life, leaving only misery and suffering? The right to life includes and implies the right to commit suicide. To hold otherwise--to declare that society must give you permission to kill yourself--is to contradict the right to life at its root. If you have a duty to go on living, despite your better judgment, then your life does not belong to you, and you exist by permission, not by right.
For these reasons, each individual has the right to decide the hour of his death and to implement that solemn decision as best he can. The choice is his because the life is his. And if a doctor is willing (not forced) to assist in a patient’s suicide, based on an objective assessment of his patient's mental and physical state, the law should not stand in his way.
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Soldiers kill in war all the time because they follow orders to do so. People who commit suicide are following their own orders. In either case, it is the resolution of a conflict by its utmost clarity.
I completely agree with this argument.
We have the freedom to decide if we see suicide fit. It is our life- we do not need anyone's "permission to live," as the article states, so why would we then need someone's approval to die? We all must find ways to be happy, but if horrible medical disasters delete all existence of that happiness, we should then be able to decide to die. "To hold otherwise--to declare that society must give you permission to kill yourself--is to contradict the right to life at its root."
The law should not inhibit individuals from assessing their life and making decisions that apply, almost exclusively, to them. If someone (a doctor) is willing to help a person who is suffering and in need, I see no fault in it. As long as it was thought over and one of the last resorts, who's to say it is wrong for that individual?
"The choice is his because the life is his."