Should You Have the Right to Assisted Suicide?

Last Updated on February 5, 2022

California became the fifth state this week to pass an assisted suicide law.

What if your doctor told you had a terminal illness?

The first question you might ask is the obvious one: How long do I have?

Once you get that answer, other things would probably come to mind. Sooner or later — probably later than it’d actually pop into your head because you might not want to know the answer — you might get around to asking what the end would be like: Would there be a lot of pain? Would you know it was happening? Would you be a vegetable? Or, perhaps worse, would you know everything that was happening but be unable to communicate or even move?

If you asked most people how they’d prefer to die, assuming they had that choice, I would imagine many would simply like to go quietly, peacefully in their sleep. But just as in life, there are no such guarantees in death.

Gov. Jerry Brown, himself a former Jesuit seminary student, said he struggled with the decision to sign the law.

“I do not know what I would do if I were dying in prolonged and excruciating pain. I am certain, however, that it would be a comfort to be able to consider the options afforded by this bill. And I wouldn’t deny that right to others.”

The Los Angeles Times reported critics say the bill would be abused by “greedy heirs pressuring elderly people to end their lives prematurely,” certainly an interesting argument, although supporters of the law say that hasn’t been the case in Oregon where a similar law is in effect. (I’m not sure how they know that, but it does sort of seem like a stretch to me.)

The Times also reports that in the last 17 years in Oregon, doctors have written 1,173 prescriptions, but that of those, 752 patients actually chose to use the medication, so even getting the prescription isn’t a guarantee that people will use it.

If we are going to allow, as a society, things like “Do Not Resuscitate” orders, which seek to prevent the use of lifesaving measures in certain conditions, it doesn’t seem so unreasonable to me that we have this option, too.

How do you feel about assisted suicide? Even if it’s an option you don’t think you’d ever choose, do you think someone else in a different situation should at least have that option available?