I have a 50-year-old sibling with multiple medical conditions (uncontrolled epilepsy, a stroke that left her physically and mentally impaired, paranoid schizophrenia, to name a few) that have left her isolated and miserable. My 80-plus-year-old parents are her caretakers. She has the very best doctors, social workers and therapists — but none can give her a fulfilling life. She calls me crying every night, often threatening to commit suicide, a threat she has tried to make good on dozens of times. I’m struggling to know if I should stop talking her out of suicide and instead give her options for a death with dignity. If she were dying of a terminal illness, the discussion could be more frank. But what of these chronic conditions with no end in sight? Name Withheld

The quote above is from a New York Times article entitled Should I Help My Sister End Her Life? The reason why I start my article with the same quote is to describe to my readers why physician assisted suicide needs to be talked about, and why it has to happen now. If this man decided to help his sister just so she could finally be at peace, he could be charged with manslaughter and be sent to prison for up to ten years. This brother would never have to worry about anything like this if physician assisted suicide was legal. Physician assisted suicide or PAS is the act of a doctor prescribing the medication needed by their patient to end their life. This may seem extreme and a little ridiculous, but PAS can be very restricted. As shown by the laws in Oregon, Montana, Washington, Vermont and California, physician assisted suicide has many restrictions. As stated in their laws, “An adult who is competent, is a resident of Washington state, and has been determined by the attending physician and consulting physician to be suffering from a terminal disease, and who has voluntarily expressed his or her wish to die, may make a written request for medication that the patient may self-administer to end his or her life in a humane and dignified manner.” Another requirement that is not listed in this statement is that the patient must have no more than six months to live.

Now that you’ve been educated on Physician assisted suicide and what it really is, you can understand the opposing arguments for physician assisted suicide and why most of them are absurd. The main arguments for why PAS should stay illegal are religious and moral based. The religious based arguments are centered around suicide being a sin, and the moral based arguments are centered around the Hippocratic oath.

The religious arguments are extremely difficult to combat because you can’t argue religion. Religion is based on interpretation and that’s why you can have people who are barely religious and others who murder people in the name of their religion. Based on that alone you can’t argue that physician assisted suicide is allowed religiously, but that shouldn’t be where you combat the issue. The area in which you argue for PAS is that religion doesn’t belong in our laws because some people are atheist and law has to account for everyone. That being said if physician assisted suicide is legal, then people who aren’t religious have an option, and people who are can abstain from PAS. Just because PAS is legal doesn’t mean that everyone has to use it.

The moral based argument is the most relatable to people. I mean if you were a doctor would you be able to live with giving your patient something that would kill them? Most people would say no, and I would be inclined to agree with them until you really think about what doctors go through. Doctors essentially become part of their patient’s family when they are diagnosed with a terminal illness. They have to deal with them day in and day out and they grieve with them as they slowly pass away. Now if a doctor is basically family why wouldn’t they start to think like the brother in the opening quote? In reality they would and a gallup poll shows that 68% of doctors do, and if doctors support it why should people say otherwise.

Now that you know the arguments against physician assisted suicide and how they are very weak, all you need to know is why should PAS be legalized. That is plain and simple, people want die with dignity and not be in agony for their last few months on this planet. Why should people who are healthy dictate their end of life decisions?