Assisted Suicide Research Paper
Nika Moslehi Thursday, October 23, 2014
The purpose of the following document is to perpetuate the Supreme Court of Canada into legalizing assisted suicide.
In recent years, assisted suicide has become a highly controversial topic and has sparked many heated debates. The reason why assisted suicide is becoming so prominent right now is because of the aging baby boom generation who rapidly approaching last stage of life.
According to the oxford dictionary, assisted suicide is defined as “the suicide of a patient suffering from an incurable disease, effected by the taking of lethal drugs provided by a doctor for this purpose.” To rephrase this definition, assisted suicide relieves a suffering patient from a terminal illness by enabling …show more content…
A recent survey, conducted by Ipsos Reid on behalf of Dying with Dignity Canada revealed that 84% of Canadians agreed "a doctor should be able to help someone end their life if the person is a competent adult who is terminally ill, suffering unbearably and repeatedly asks for assistance to die.”
To commence, I would like to point out the importance of an individual’s freedom and liberty. Freedom and liberty are the two most fundamental rights every individual deserves, so essentially, so there must be an extremely persuasive purpose to supersede not having these rights. Assisted suicide is strongly linked to one’s personal rights and entitlements. It is evident that everyone is in control of his or her own life, therefore, in order to illustrate that assisted suicide should be legalized, I will highlight the fact that there is no reason for it to be perceived as an illegal …show more content…
The Evelyn Martens’ case demonstrates the terrible inadequacy of our Canadian law on assisted suicide; she was prosecuted, over a period of two and a half years, for performing assisted suicide. Throughout that period of time she faced with a 28-year prison sentence (14 for each offense). In 1993 Sue Rodriguez who was suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease appealed for legal sanction in order to get assistance, however, the Supreme Court of Canada denied her appeal by a vote of 5 to 4. Although the members of the Justices recognized that their decision was discriminatory in that suicide is possible for ones who are only physical capable, but not so for the disabled, the Justices who voted against her feared that the public danger of allowing assisted suicide outweighed the discrimination. Having the restriction of not allowing assisted suicide results in terminally ill patients finding it necessary to end their lives sooner than they would prefer to as they must kill themselves, while they are still physically able to do so. Recognizing that suicide itself is legal should mean that one who assists suicide should not be
The purpose of the following document is to perpetuate the Supreme Court of Canada into legalizing assisted suicide.
In recent years, assisted suicide has become a highly controversial topic and has sparked many heated debates. The reason why assisted suicide is becoming so prominent right now is because of the aging baby boom generation who rapidly approaching last stage of life.
According to the oxford dictionary, assisted suicide is defined as “the suicide of a patient suffering from an incurable disease, effected by the taking of lethal drugs provided by a doctor for this purpose.” To rephrase this definition, assisted suicide relieves a suffering patient from a terminal illness by enabling …show more content…
A recent survey, conducted by Ipsos Reid on behalf of Dying with Dignity Canada revealed that 84% of Canadians agreed "a doctor should be able to help someone end their life if the person is a competent adult who is terminally ill, suffering unbearably and repeatedly asks for assistance to die.”
To commence, I would like to point out the importance of an individual’s freedom and liberty. Freedom and liberty are the two most fundamental rights every individual deserves, so essentially, so there must be an extremely persuasive purpose to supersede not having these rights. Assisted suicide is strongly linked to one’s personal rights and entitlements. It is evident that everyone is in control of his or her own life, therefore, in order to illustrate that assisted suicide should be legalized, I will highlight the fact that there is no reason for it to be perceived as an illegal …show more content…
The Evelyn Martens’ case demonstrates the terrible inadequacy of our Canadian law on assisted suicide; she was prosecuted, over a period of two and a half years, for performing assisted suicide. Throughout that period of time she faced with a 28-year prison sentence (14 for each offense). In 1993 Sue Rodriguez who was suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease appealed for legal sanction in order to get assistance, however, the Supreme Court of Canada denied her appeal by a vote of 5 to 4. Although the members of the Justices recognized that their decision was discriminatory in that suicide is possible for ones who are only physical capable, but not so for the disabled, the Justices who voted against her feared that the public danger of allowing assisted suicide outweighed the discrimination. Having the restriction of not allowing assisted suicide results in terminally ill patients finding it necessary to end their lives sooner than they would prefer to as they must kill themselves, while they are still physically able to do so. Recognizing that suicide itself is legal should mean that one who assists suicide should not be