Introduction
Assisted suicide has become common in the current society due to the challenges that are being experienced in life. Suicide occurs when a person decides to intentionally kill themselves. On the other hand, assisted suicide is when somebody else takes the responsibility of assisting somebody else to die. This is something that is obviously beyond human comprehension and should be discouraged at all costs (Hawkins, 2002). Suicide in its self has never been legal, an individual who is found by the court to have attempted suicide but failed, will have to face the necessary charges. In the same case, anybody who is found to be involved in activities of making another person take their lives should be charged by the court. In as much as a person may have that desire to die, a third party is not in the capacity to assist them terminate their lives. There is a close relationship between assisted suicide and euthanasia. The difference may be due to the reasons that may be prompting a person into it. Euthanasia has been legalized in some countries especially to patients that have terminal diseases. This is usually decided upon after considering a number of factors.
The same reasons that have been raised against the legalization of euthanasia in some countries are the same ones that have been raised against assisted suicide. Improvements that have been made in the field of science and technology have made it possible for people to live longer. In as much as this is having a positive implication on some people, it is causing pain and suffering to some people who have lost hope in life. There is a need for people to be assured of the benefits that come with life rather than look for a solution of terminating their lives. There is usually a meaning that is attached to life which cannot be compromised by the temporal discomforts that may come with life. Assisted suicide basically means that one is going through a situation that they find unbearable. They may share such with someone else who may feel for them with the aim of providing a permanent solution to them. Life is an experience with different cycles, every cycle has its own experiences that should be embraced and a solution identified. It is believed that there is no good or bad experience that happens to someone that has never happened before to somebody else.
However tough the situation may be, there is usually a solution to it. Suicide has never been and will never be a solution to any kind of problem. One thing that the people that assist others to commit suicide forget is that they are still alive. They may in fact be haunted by their evil acts which will basically make their lives uncomfortable. In as much as one may get to know and understand what the other person is going through, they are not in the capacity to encourage and assist them to die (Gorsuch, 2006). Suicide is in itself a selfish decision that is taken by a person who cares less about the other people around. Assisted suicide hence means that a third party is supporting the selfish nature of another individual by encouraging and even assisting them to terminate their lives. The best assistance they can probably offer them is to advice them on the available solutions so that they live their lives as an example to the rest. When one is given a chance to experience all the negatives that life brings them and subsequently overcomes them, it becomes a source of solace and comfort to another person that may be faced by a similar situation. Their lives will be of importance to the generations to come who will also have a reason to face it with the full assurance that somebody else also succeeded through the tough seasons.
Legalizing assisted suicide will like telling the upcoming generation that the only solution to lives issues is to die. This will hence lead to a situation where by the young people that are supposed to reason and come with solutions are denied the chance do so. They will be used to the trend of basically having a good reason to die and requesting somebody else to help them accomplish it. It may also create a scenario where by people will start killing others without any reason and claim that they were requested by the deceased to do so. Since the main witness to the case has passed on, the court may not have a basis to determine whether the action was done legally or not. This will hence be a loophole for some people to payback on their enemies in the name of assisted suicide. Suicide is something personal and nobody will be ready to go through all the legal procedures of signing papers in agreement of the action they are about to engage in.
Anti-thesis
Death is inevitable and anybody that has been born will definitely have to die at some point of time. What makes the difference in life is the kind of death that one will experience. Some people die a painful death while others a peaceful one. This may however have nothing to do with the kind of life that one lived. Both the people that are referred to as good and bad may experience a similar type of death. This hence means that whether one is assisted to commit suicide or not, the end result is that they will have to die. Life comes with its own pressures, some that are manageable and others that are just too difficult to handle. For many that decide to persevere through the ordeals of life end up dying a more painful death than probably those who chose to die prematurely. Life is becoming more complicated as the days go by; one realizes by the end of the day that their efforts to stay alive are frustrated by the ever increasing challenges of life. Denying death to a person that has a desire to die is making their latter life more unbearable. This is basically because their attitudes towards life have already changed and there is nothing much that can be done to revert that.
There are a good number of people that are simply living because they have no alternative in their lives. They are not in anyway productive considering their state of mind. They best they can do is to use the little available resources and hence exerting more pressure on them. A person whose mind is occupied by death may desire no better solution than to die. Helping the person to live is like multiplying their frustrations. They may become a nuisance to the people around them and hence transferring their stress. By helping the person to die, it would be a great relief not only to them but also to the people that are around them (Paterson, 2008). They will not have to be nagged and waste their precious resources on someone that is not appreciating it. The challenges that come with life are not easy and not anybody can manage them. It will hence be profitable if the law acted fairly by allowing those that are willing and ready to face life to do it and also allow those that want it terminated to do so. As a matter of fact, nobody ever choose to be born, however there are a lot of decisions that one has to make for them to live a certain kind of life. Once an individual has passed the childhood stage, they are given the authority to make and implement their decisions. The same legal procedures that allow adults to make such decisions should also be related to the right to die. Denying someone that is willing and ready to die without giving them a solution to the same is like acting selfishly.
Synthesis
Assisted suicide is a trend that the society will have to bear with even as the standards of life change. It has become obvious that the issues of life are becoming more complicated and people seem to get no solution to it. Mostly people are advised to go for therapies and counseling when they are encountered with such tough situations. Unlike in the past where such services were given free of charge, people have to pay for them and hence making it even more expensive (Sanbar, 2004). For those that are able to afford them, or are willing to sacrifice to obtain help, they are given almost impossible remedies that they have to strictly follow for positive results. This basically means that even after spending a substantial amount of money to obtain a solution to their problems, it is never a guarantee that they will recover from the same. Some of the modern remedies aimed at making people accept and recover from what is happening to them are difficult to adapt and hence making their latter state almost worse than the former.
On the other hand, there is no telling of when there will be an end to lives challenges. Most people in modern society have become escapist and not ready to face the situations of life one at a time. These are the things that pile up in their minds and think of obtaining a solution in an instant. Instead of assisting such people to terminate their lives, it will be better if they are encouraged to take every step at a time. If their situation is beyond recovery, then they should be made to stay alive and tell about the story of their lives. This will be helpful in protecting the future generation from applying escapism in their lives and learning to deal with every situation that comes their way. From what has been observed, there is usually a circle that develops in a certain generation due to the conduct of the past generation. For instance, suicide cases may be reported in a particular lineage. This is basically because of the decision that was taken by their ancestor who saw it as the best way of solving their problems. The very first person in the lineage that resorted to suicide implied to the upcoming generation that there is no other solution to their problems rather than committing suicide.
If such a trend has been observed and continues to haunt many other generations, it basically means that legalizing assisted suicide will be ruining the upcoming generation. The government will be advising individuals that they really don’t have to face their situations; they can escape them by getting someone to assist them to die. Suicide is a selfish decision that leaves the dependants of the deceased with a lot of problems. They are basically made to suffer for the consequences that they would have avoided. For instance, a man who may be the main breadwinner of the home may accumulate a lot of debts during their life. The pressure becomes too much where by they are not only able to pay the debts but that they are unable to provide for their family needs. When such a person contemplates on suicide, it means that they are handing over their problems to their needy family (Snyder, 2002). This are the people that the man had a responsibility of taking care of and instead of fulfilling his duties and obligations, he chooses to die and let them find a way of sorting them out. The government is endowed with the responsibility of taking care of all citizens. However by legalizing assisted suicide, they will be supporting the idea of allowing other innocent people to suffer for the mistakes they never made.
Legalizing assisted suicide may also affect the economy of a country to a larger level. In fact it will be a strategy that will be used by people to take loans that may never be repaid. It will give people the ability to determine when they wish to die and hence making all the prior preparations (Bilirakis, 1998). In as much as the government will be doing it for the main reason of relieving a small category of selfish people from their lives frustrations they will at the same time making a larger category of hardworking people to suffer losses. It will be a shortcut that will be adapted by the lazy in the society to eat up what the hardworking people have labored for and then requesting to be killed. This will kill the morale of the hardworking in the society as well as minimize on the level of trust that the organizations that are involved in providing loans have towards their clients. There will be fewer developments even as people operate more on a personal basis rather than the successful co-operate strategy.
Conclusion
For assisted suicide to have positive implications on the people that are longing for such a premature death, then the practice need to be publicized rather than done in secret. Just like any other decision that affects a larger community of people requires several signatures, people that are to take such a decision need to consult with their family and the other people that concern them. This will be for the reason of ensuring that nobody is made to suffer for the consequences of such an abrupt death. Most people that are tired with life and want to die may never wish the information to leak to a third party. They know fully well that their decision is a form of escapism from the realities of life. If the individuals feel that it is the best decision that they have to make, then they should make it public and ensure that nobody else will suffer when they are away.
Reference list
Bilirakis, M., (1998). Assisted Suicide – Legal, Medicine, Ethical and Social Issues: Hearing Before the Committee on Commerce, U. S. House of Representatives. New York: DIANE Publishing.
Gorsuch, N., (2006). The future of assisted suicide and euthanasia. New York: Princeton University Press.
Hawkins, G., (2002). Physician-assisted suicide. Michigan: Greenhaven Press.
Paterson, C., (2008). Assisted suicide and euthanasia: a natural law ethics approach. California: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Sanbar, S., (2004). Legal medicine. London: Elsevier Health Sciences.
Snyder, L., (2002). Assisted suicide: finding common ground. Indiana: Indiana University Press.