Physician Assisted Suicide

“I watched my father die a couple years ago,” says Caleb Heppner, “He died a really terrible death. It was forty eight hours of excruciating pain” (Caleb Heppner Discusses). Today, Caleb is fifty-seven years old and is diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer, which has already metastasized into his bones. He wishes to do whatever possible to avoid a painful death similar to that of his father. To Caleb, just knowing that there is a possibility to have control over his death is comforting. His death is the only event left to have control over. “I really see this as a medical option,” Heppner explains (Caleb Heppner Discusses). Physician assisted suicide should be legalized because everyone should have the right to choose how to live as well as how to die. In addition, assisted suicide provides an alternative to a painful death. By granting patients the legal right to physician-assisted suicide, terminally ill patients would be able to die peacefully. Physician assisted suicide refers to the procedure in which a physician prescribes a lethal dose of a medication to a terminally ill patient. Today, Oregon, Montana, and Washington are the only state in the United States in which physician assisted suicide is legal. California is currently considering whether or not it should legalize physician-assisted suicide as well. The law requires that both the patient and the medical personnel take the procedure slowly and seriously. In order to ensure that there is no possible cure for the patient’s disease, the law requires that two physicians independently conclude that the patient is terminally ill. In a recent article, Patricia Guthrie informs her audience about the physician assisted suicide law in Oregon, which was authorized in 1994 by vote. “Oregon’s law requires two doctors to consult and agree that the patient would otherwise