Do the Terminally Ill Have a Right to Die?

The terminally ill should have the right to die.

Can the amount of suffering and torment be justified in a terminally ill patient just because we have the means to keep a dying human being alive? I certainly don’t think so. The controversy has been raging for quite some time. The Supreme Court decided in 1997 that a person does not have the legal right to die. However, what should one do when his or her agony is endless and there is no chance for improvement, and only the slow diminishing state of illness? In 1991 an author named Derek Humphrey penned a manual, entitled Final Exit on how to commit suicide through suffocation to self starvation. This manual became a best seller and demonstrated the fact that many people agree that the terminally ill should have the right to die. With medical assisted suicide, the patient would be given one lethal injection and the suffering would be relieved in minutes. Is this humane end to constant, prolonged agony preferable to the horrendous suicide through suffocation in a plastic bag? The medically aided suicide ensures an end to torment and the suicide techniques described in Final Exit are certainly ways to end a life. However, they may fail or be extremely painful. Perhaps an analogy can provide more insight into what the situation is like to the patient. A terminal illness can be likened to living in a shell, where the organism continually grows larger, yet the shell does not. The pain slowly becomes worse until the organism dies in sheer agony.

Another careful consideration should be directed towards the family of the terminally ill patient. These loved ones also endure the misery that the patient is enduring. The family understand the helpless situation their loved in is in and that death is certain after a prolonged, ceaseless, and unendurable suffering. In the Netherlands, the right to die with medical assistance came into legislation in 1981. The terminally ill patient must meet these 5 requirements.
1. The patient must repeatedly request a doctor’s help in dying after a careful, voluntary consideration.
2. The suffering must be intolerable and there must be no prospect of improvement.
3. The patient and doctor must discuss alternatives.
4. The suicide must follow medical procedure exactly.
5. The doctor must confer with an acquaintance of the patient who has access to his or her medical records.
I think it is time for the US to reverse the decision of the 1997 case. Do the terminally ill have the right to die? I believe so.