Ethical Issues With Assisted Suicide
There is no moral and ethical problem with assisted suicide.
The topic of assisted suicide is very controversial and has had many people in history debate whether it is ethically and morally acceptable. This subject separates the people that believe you should have the right for someone to assist you in suicide, with those that think you don’t have the right to die because of moral reasons. It is one of those topics that just about anybody you ask has an opinion on it. Firstly there have been different countries and U.S sates throughout time that have made assisted suicide legal, sadly Canada is not one of them. The dictionary definition of assisted suicide is “the suicide of a patient suffering from an incurable disease, effected by …show more content…
Also there are 4 U.S. states in which assisted suicide is legal. These are: Oregon, Washington, Vermont, and Montana. The places mentioned allow terminally ill patients to be assisted by a physician or someone else in ending their lives. The four European countries have different models in how they allow euthanasia or assisted suicide, as do the American states. For example in the Netherlands the criteria is as follows: “you must be suffering in unbearable pain with no prospect of improvement. The patient's request for euthanasia must be voluntary and persist over time. The patient must be fully aware of his/her condition, prospects and options. There must be consultation with at least one other independent doctor who needs to confirm the conditions mentioned above. The death must be carried out in a medically appropriate fashion by the doctor or patient, in which case the doctor must be present. The patient is at least 12 years old (patients between 12 and 16 years of age require the consent of their parents)”. . As you can see from this example, the laws have been crafted in ways which protect the abuse of the right and the value of human life. In all the places where assisted suicide is legal similar laws/ rules and regulations exist. This stops the law from being taken advantage of. So Canada has no reason for …show more content…
The woman was suffering from ALS (or Lou Gehrig’s disease) and was terminally ill. When it was found that she had less than a year to live, she began challenging section 241(b) of the criminal code of Canada which made assisted suicide illegal in the country. She wanted through section 7, 12 and 15(1) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, to reverse the law on assisted suicide and make it legal. Section 7 is the “right to life”, section 12 is protection against “cruel and unusual punishment” and lastly section 15(1) is the right to “equality”. The points of the woman were very valid and were completely within her rights in the charter. But the Supreme Court of Canada did not accept her appeal and mentioned this as one of the reasons “that there was no violation of section 7. They first considered whether the prohibition on ending one's life engaged the right to security of person. They found that the prohibition had sufficient connection with the justice system by its impact on an individual's autonomy and right to life by causing physical and psychological pain.”("Rodriguez v. British Columbia (Attorney General)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Apr. 2013. Web. 21 Oct. 2013). Also they mentioned that it does not violate the other two sections mentioned by Miss Rodriguez either. She ultimately either took her own life with Svend Robinson present or he helped her in taking
The topic of assisted suicide is very controversial and has had many people in history debate whether it is ethically and morally acceptable. This subject separates the people that believe you should have the right for someone to assist you in suicide, with those that think you don’t have the right to die because of moral reasons. It is one of those topics that just about anybody you ask has an opinion on it. Firstly there have been different countries and U.S sates throughout time that have made assisted suicide legal, sadly Canada is not one of them. The dictionary definition of assisted suicide is “the suicide of a patient suffering from an incurable disease, effected by …show more content…
Also there are 4 U.S. states in which assisted suicide is legal. These are: Oregon, Washington, Vermont, and Montana. The places mentioned allow terminally ill patients to be assisted by a physician or someone else in ending their lives. The four European countries have different models in how they allow euthanasia or assisted suicide, as do the American states. For example in the Netherlands the criteria is as follows: “you must be suffering in unbearable pain with no prospect of improvement. The patient's request for euthanasia must be voluntary and persist over time. The patient must be fully aware of his/her condition, prospects and options. There must be consultation with at least one other independent doctor who needs to confirm the conditions mentioned above. The death must be carried out in a medically appropriate fashion by the doctor or patient, in which case the doctor must be present. The patient is at least 12 years old (patients between 12 and 16 years of age require the consent of their parents)”. . As you can see from this example, the laws have been crafted in ways which protect the abuse of the right and the value of human life. In all the places where assisted suicide is legal similar laws/ rules and regulations exist. This stops the law from being taken advantage of. So Canada has no reason for …show more content…
The woman was suffering from ALS (or Lou Gehrig’s disease) and was terminally ill. When it was found that she had less than a year to live, she began challenging section 241(b) of the criminal code of Canada which made assisted suicide illegal in the country. She wanted through section 7, 12 and 15(1) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, to reverse the law on assisted suicide and make it legal. Section 7 is the “right to life”, section 12 is protection against “cruel and unusual punishment” and lastly section 15(1) is the right to “equality”. The points of the woman were very valid and were completely within her rights in the charter. But the Supreme Court of Canada did not accept her appeal and mentioned this as one of the reasons “that there was no violation of section 7. They first considered whether the prohibition on ending one's life engaged the right to security of person. They found that the prohibition had sufficient connection with the justice system by its impact on an individual's autonomy and right to life by causing physical and psychological pain.”("Rodriguez v. British Columbia (Attorney General)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Apr. 2013. Web. 21 Oct. 2013). Also they mentioned that it does not violate the other two sections mentioned by Miss Rodriguez either. She ultimately either took her own life with Svend Robinson present or he helped her in taking