Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide

“This is not about a matter of life versus death, but about the timing and manner of an inevitable death.” -Unknown. Active voluntary euthanasia is described as mercy killing at the patient’s request. Physician-assisted suicide is described as the killing of a person by the person’s own hand with the help of a physician (Lewis 264). Generally, the law forbids active euthanasia and the medical profession is officially opposed to it. In the United States, physician-assisted suicide is legal in only four states- Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Vermont (Lewis 265). Death has become more difficult to define and the conventional notion of death seems to be inadequate. To overcome the traditional drawbacks of the traditional definition of death, alternative definitions have been suggested. According to the whole-brain definition of death, an individual is dead when all brain function permanently stops. The higher brain definition of death says that an individual is dead when higher brain functions—those that give rise to consciousness—permanently stop (Lewis 266-267). I believe when faced with certain undignified death, one should get to choose how they wish to die. For example: Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old with terminal brain cancer and less than six months left to live, who wanted to die on her own terms wrote the following: “When my suffering becomes too great, I can say to all those I love, ‘I love you; come by my side, and come say goodbye as I pass into whatever’s next.’ I will die upstairs in my bedroom with my husband, mother, stepfather, and best friend by my side and pass peacefully. I can’t imagine trying to rob anyone else of that choice (Maynard).” I have taken care of people who are in constant severe pain and who’s bodies are failing them, seen people be afraid to die without dignity