Legalizing Assisted Suicide

Legalizing assisted suicide, also known as voluntary euthanasia, is one of the most widely discussed and debated topics all over the world. While the number of supporters seems to be growing, as made evident by the number of countries and even a few American states that have legalized assisted suicide, there are still a great number of opponents who see voluntary euthanasia as morally reprehensible. Pro-life supporters, such as the National Right to Life Committee and the Roman Catholic Church, see assisted suicide as nothing more than giving doctors permission to commit murder. Instead of listening to pleas of the terminally ill patients, pro-life supporters believe we should just give them medicine to alleviate some of the pain they are experiencing until a natural death occurs. To me, it seems more cruel and morally corrupt to stand by and do nothing but attempt to relieve a terminally ill patient's pain, than to listen to a patient's dying request and ease their suffering under their own terms. Suicide is not an illegal act, yet opponents of voluntary euthanasia seem intent on keeping it a crime. In essence, pro-life supporters believe terminally ill patients are not capable of making a life and death decision, and elect themselves to speak on behalf of them, against the dying patient's wishes.