Assisted Suicide Should Be Legalized for those that are mentally stable and suffering

Framework He begins by attempting to demonstrate that the government doesn’t always make the best of inventions and they don’t always turn out like they are intended to turn out. He refers to the guillotine. My framework clearly states that the government don’t have a right to interfere in death, his claim that the government have made failed inventions is irrelevant because I did not say that the government would control assisted suicide (A.S), in fact I claimed the opposite. If A.S remains illegal then the government are interfering with our deaths. This contradicts possibly the most iconic libertarian view. The belief in a smaller, less powerful government. It will do the opposite of enlarging the government. Legalizing A.S will limit the government’s control over death and ultimately agree with the libertarian view. His framework goes against the libertarian belief in a smaller government and since his framework (supposedly) coincides with libertarianism it is self contradictory and my framework remains superior. Definitions Euthanasia and A.S are different - it is possible for somebody to be pro A.S and con euthanasia. This is not the case for me but this debate is in regards to A.S - not euthanasia. In this section, I will clarify the definitions and show why his contentions are invalid since they are arguing against a different resolution to the one proposed in R1 by me. I will restate the definition here; we can compare it to euthanasia. Assisted Suicide is the act of a medically trained professional deliberately providing assistance to help somebody to willingly kill themselves (commit suicide). Let us compare this to euthanasia: Euthanasia is the act of a medically trained professional deliberately killing a patient because the patient wanted to be killed (1). The difference is clearly significant because in A.S the doctor is not a murderer. In euthanasia the doctor is. This is why there are issues with involuntary euthanasia since in this the doctor is ultimately the killer and so they sometimes make the decision to kill patients involuntarily. In A.S the patient is the killer so the only way that it can possibly be involuntary is if the doctor forces the patient to kill themselves rather than actually killing the patient. The legalization of euthanasia would create a larger difference in the doctor’s job. Euthanasia empowers the doctor to carry out the patient’s wish to end their lives. There is a key difference between that level of empowerment, and acquiescing to the request of a patient for the correct and safe tools to commit suicide. Doctors prescribe regularly but they do not end the patient’s lives by their own hands in A.S. Thus, you are not expanding the role that they’re currently playing unlike euthanasia. This key difference that must be established. He is not arguing for his position. This resolution is affirmed. I will now show how my his contentions do not impact upon the resolution individually. R1: Unreported Euthanasia & Euthanasia without consent. These statistics clearly show that many euthanasia occurrences are involuntary. I will now show you that this is not the case for A.S. Since euthanasia is a much larger issue than A.S is (and there is less controversy), there are more statistics regarding worldwide statistics. There are, however, smaller scale statistics regarding A.S: “In Oregon USA it has been legal for terminally ill, mentally competent adults to have an assisted death for 18 years. In those 18 years there have been no cases of abuse and no calls to extend the law beyond terminally ill adults.” (2) The key term that is most significant in this quote is that the cases of ‘A.S’ have been carefully monitored and regulated and after 18 years of Oregon A.S there has never been an incident of abuse. This quote should be considered preferable over his case since mine is relevant to the resolution whilst his refers to a different topic that doesn’t impact upon the resolution. R2: The Slippery Slope Argument This is also used in terms of euthanasia however I will still respond to this because the argument can be applied in terms of A.S. I have always viewed the slippery slope argument as a quite poor argument that can be applied in a number of circumstances in an almost identical way. Everything can go down a slippery slope. What we need to do is put down a clear boundary. You could argue that there is a slippery slope from eating a lamb chop to eating a human being. You could argue that there is a slippery slope from pushing somebody to killing somebody. The slippery slope argument is poor and can happen anywhere. I will use a relevant example. People murder. Does that mean that we never should have established rules against murder? The same applies to A.S. I doubt that there will be many cases of this right being abused. The chances of right being abused is low and there is evidence from places that currently have assisted suicide legalized - Oregon. It is the continuation of this contention that is fatal to his case. He states that we are transforming the role of doctors into killers. I have ‘ironically’ come across that argument every time I have debated the topic. He is mixing up the terms A.S and euthanasia. In A.S the doctor provides the patient with access to a quick and effective suicide, which empowers the patient with the decision to use it, allowing the patient to then harmlessly kill themselves if they wish to do so. The doctor is not a killer, the doctor makes sure that the method is safe. He defines euthanasia when it was agreed that we are arguing for A.S - this was clearly defined in R1. I will provide a statistical rebuttal to this claim. From the same source as him: “53% of physicians answered yes or probably yes to the question: "Would it have been all right, upon request from the patient, to intentionally prescribe drugs so the patient could end his or her life by overdose?" (3) His statistics are not as clear as he stated them to be. It was specifically about the withdrawal of life support (3). This is not A.S. R3: Self Ownership & Sickness He seems to be interconnecting his contentions. This is a problematic since if one of the contentions that is interconnected is refuted the rest of it falls apart. His source is the right to life source. This is a bias source that evidently will not provide both sides of the argument. I refute his case. As clearly defined at the beginning of my argument, A.S and euthanasia are separate issues and should not be generalized as the same thing. Euthanasia has been demonstrated as something that can lead to involuntary usage however A.S is different as I have demonstrated through my R2 contentions and in this rebuttal. His incident is related to euthanasia so it is invalid. In A.S the patient ultimately kills themselves. The patient was in a vegetative state. In this state an A.S could not have been performed simply because the patient must be able to conduct this themselves. Also, the resolution uses the word: ‘suffering’. This patient was in a vegetative state and clearly was not suffering - merely unable to think or act. The resolution also requires the patient to be in a correct mental state of mind. This patient was clearly in no condition to be making an informed decision. His self determination argument refers to euthanasia and it isn’t actually an offense to his case. He states the following: “ when they are in the correct state of mind then they should be able to make any judgmental decision and it is likely under this case that they would choose life over death.” This is not a reason to not legalize A.S. It is like abortion, many pro-abortion members of society won’t necessarily want the legalization of abortion so that they can have one. They usually advocate the legalization of abortion because they want women to have the option. If you put his argument into this context it makes more sense. In an abortion debate, you cannot say that abortion is not permissible because over 50% will choose not to have an abortion. This would be a weak argument and this is without the further mitigations that he has been restrained by, due to the fact that he is arguing against euthanasia rather than A.S. The option to A.S is important without the legalization of A.S the law treats the dying as irrational individuals who don’t know what they want, relegating them to the status of children. That is extremely problematic, especially for him since he is a libertarian that opposes government intervention. He continues by quoting an anti-euthanasia advocate. The key word: ‘anti-euthanasia’ He has misunderstood the resolution of the debate and cannot differentiate between euthanasia and A.S. He states: “Though the individual may be in pain they are still in the wrong state of mind as I brought up earlier meaning that the person cannot properly think for themselves and have lost the ability to choose between right and wrong as they are attempting to end their lives with no [regards] to others.” This is a resolutional misunderstanding. The resolution in R1 says: ‘mentally stable’. His argument relies on the patient being mentally unstable however the resolution specifically says mentally stable. He continues: “So it [matters] not the level of pain the person is [experiencing] as if they kill themselves they would be robbing the community and it in turn harms society.” This argument is unsourced. I have been provided with no reason as to how it harms society and I have been given no reason to believe that it does. Even if it does harm society, it is the typical libertarian view that humans should have the option to choose. Conclusion P1: To win this debate he had to prove that A.S should not be legal. P2: He argued against euthanasia C1: He is not winning this debate (meeting their BOP) P1: To win this debate I had to prove that A.S should be legal. P2: I argued that A.S should be legalized. C1: I am winning this debate (meeting my BOP). Sources in comments.