Physician-assisted suicide is a debate in the United States that people know of, but not a lot of people talk about. Not to be confused with euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide does not include the physician administering the fatal dose of drugs, but prescribing them to a mentally stable patient. This is legal in several countries, including Canada, and six states in the U.S. allow it when the patient is terminally ill with fewer than six months to live.
While some may view this as “unethical,” who really gets to say? The issue should be left up to one person and one person only: the doctor’s mentally stable patient. Nobody should infringe upon an individual’s selfishness and tell them they are not able to act in their own personal interest, even if that interest is their own death. Since right to life is a person’s only true fundamental right, they have the right to do things to keep that life sustained. With that is the right to act on one’s own judgment, without pressure, to achieve one’s own personal goals. When life gets subjectively bad enough, a person may act on their best judgment to achieve their goal, even if that is death.
Everyone agrees that each individual has a right to his or her own life, and that is respected without question. When a person makes a decision, it is based partly on desire. Desire does not mean, in this case, a person wants it or feels like it, it takes a process of reason for a person to decide what he or she truly desires. The person does not decide until they can say they desire it because it is the right thing to do. When a person opts to take his or her own life in a peaceful manner, assisted by a doctor, the decision is based upon their own process of reason in determining what is right.
Finally, a rational person takes a decision-making process very seriously. They do not act on a desire without either being aware of the potential results or making themselves aware of the potential results. If the practice were to exclude mentally unstable patients, a rational person should be trusted to make the decision. Even if the decision is one that ends their own life, that decision was made to achieve the goals made attainable by the individual’s right to life. The rational person will make the rational choice most of the time to do what is necessary to continue their life, but if the choice is to discontinue their life, that right should not be held from them.