Ethical arguments for legalizing physician-assisted euthanasia

Ethical Position on Euthanasia

Suicide is a taboo in almost every human culture and it violates the teachings of all of the major Western religions practiced in the United States. On the other hand, there appear to be situations and circumstances were it is perfectly understandable why a person would prefer to die than to continue living. Certainly, there are extremely difficult decisions involved and not every case is necessarily easy to resolve ethically. However, it is possible to establish ethical principles by considering some of the most extreme cases before worrying about the more difficult cases.

Euthanasia to Escape Prolonged Suffering

Perhaps the easiest scenario to understand is the case of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). If allowed to progress, the disease results in slow agonizing death from gradual suffocation. If a patient who is already facing certain death (not to mention, after already losing all abilities to move and communicate) would prefer to die painlessly from a lethal injection, that would be perfectly understandable. In my opinion, Dr. Kevorkian is not a criminal but a hero for providing this service to patients in this situation. Other cases where euthanasia is equally understandable would include virtually any incurable fatal medical condition that causes severe pain that is impossible to alleviate. If a person is too opposed to suicide under any circumstances to take that escape even from the worst pain, that is, of course, his or her prerogative. But the point is that is equally within a person's right to make that decision for himself or herself if death is preferable to continued suffering. Nobody (including the government) should have the authority to override that highly personal and private decision.

Conclusion

Supporting the right of the individual to choose euthanasia does not mean that there should be no safeguards to protect mentally unstable patients from rash decisions or to prevent abuse of the process by others for their own gain. The state has every right to establish reasonable tests and safeguards to limit euthanasia to individuals who are mentally competent to make the decision for themselves. Beyond that, however, it is difficult to support an ethical objection to euthanasia. Personal privacy is a fundamental right that the Supreme Court determined "emanates" from the Constitution forty years ago (whether Donald Trump is aware of that or not). Furthermore, the concept of patient autonomy is a fundamental focus of modern medical ethics. Ultimately, a person of sound mind has the private autonomous right to make decisions about his or her own life or death without the interference of the state and regardless of the opinions, beliefs, or values of strangers. Euthanasia should be an absolute right of every mentally competent individual.