Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide

Physician-assisted suicide has always been a controversial topic, and over the years, debate has intensified in the United States over whether or not it should be legal. The campaign to legalize physician-assisted suicide has been under way since the 1970s and recently began to gain steam. At the present time, the practice of physician-assisted suicide is legal in only one state (Oregon) in the United States. Patients that have decided that they want to die …

…never easy to grant a patient the right to die, but it is harder still for the patient to make that initial decision. Even proponents of physician-assisted suicide will agree that life is a precious gift to be cherished and preserved in every way possible. But when every effort to prolong life has proved unsuccessful and the potential for a meaningful life has been exhausted, a patient should have the legal right to physician-assisted suicide.