However, with any freedom, there are always some limitations. Giving individuals freedom of speech has not created a 'slippery slope' where individuals can be slandered. Even regarding First Amendment free speech, there are limits upon citizens in terms of revealing state secrets or using speech as a weapon -- the example of calling 'fire' in a crowded theater comes to mind. There could be limits upon the circumstances to ensure physicians could not assist severely depressed or mentally incompetent individuals to commit suicide, for example.
There are also practical considerations which the court does take into consideration when deciding many issues of social policy, as it did in Brown v. Board of Education. The advantage of physician-assisted suicide is that it occurs under a physician's discretion, and encourages patients to speak freely about end-of-life issues with their doctors, rather than to seek out and perhaps fail in a suicide attempt on their own that is painful and merely worsens their illness. In fact, it might prevent suicides in cases where things are not hopeless, given that it opens up the lines of communication rather than uses the law to close them down.
Should an individual be allowed to voluntarily end his or her life?
A different legal question is of physically healthy people should be allowed to take their own lives, such as people who are depressed....
However, even insisting upon the illegality of suicide in general is problematic -- mental health counseling rather than incarceration seems to be warranted. Making suicide illegal only means that 'failed' suicides must deal with layers of police bureaucracy after they are found. It many make many suicide attempts more deadly, if the victims fear bringing public embarrassment to their family in the court system if they are caught in the act. Although people who are not terminally ill who commit suicide are mentally ill and need help, using the law against them seems to violate the principle that the punishment should fit the crime -- in this case, there is no crime, merely a mental illness. Under the law, even someone who commits murder against a human being may be found not guilty by reason of insanity and be given access to the full mental health resources of the state -- should someone who is mentally ill who fails in an attempt to take his or her own life be considered potentially sane and be denied the same level of counseling and supervision? While failed suicides to receive some counseling, to subject them to the legal process is needlessly stressful and diverts resources that could be used to get them help.
Works Cited
The U.S. Constitution. Cornell Law School. May 11, 2009.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.table.html#amendments
