A Right to Die

“When a person has a disease that cannot be cured, do you think doctors should be allowed by law to end the patient's life by some painless means if the patient and his family request it?" (Gallup, 2006).No matter the answer to this question, everyone can agree that physician-assisted suicide is not a choice to be made lightly. Even though it could be misinterpreted as murder, it needs be supported by federal law because strict rules will prevent its abuse and the right to choose is upheld by the Declaration of Independence.

Consent

To understand the difference between physician-assisted suicide and murder, we must first understand the true meaning of the words themselves. Merriam-Webster defines murder as the unlawful killing of a human with premeditated malice ("Murder", 2010). It also defines suicide as a self-inflicted, deliberate act “resulting in voluntary death” ("Suicide”, 2010). Taking a life out of a desire to inflict harm or suffering is considered to be murder, where as enabling a person to end his or her own suffering voluntarily, is assisted suicide.

The Vanderbilt Law Review claims that “the same principle that distinguishes sex from rape, exchange from theft, confession from duress, and a variety of other matters found throughout our legal system” is the principle that separates physician-assisted suicide from murder; consent (Rubin, April 2010). In fact our legal system, is based on the idea that unless explicitly prohibited, an act is allowable is a person or people consent to performing the act, or having it performed unto him or her (Rubin, April 2010). To the public this means consensual sex is not rape, consensual exchange is not theft, so therefore consensual suicide is not murder.

Hippocratic Oath

The Hippocratic Oath is a pledge to uphold ethical standards traditionally recited by students upon the graduation of medical school. It is a commonly believed that the practice of physician-assisted suicide violates...