Terminally ill patients should be given the option of assisted death

Nearly three quarters of British people are in favour of legalising assisted suicide, almost all said they could imagine opting for assisted suicide themselves if they ever suffered from an incurable illness, serious disability or uncontrollable pain [1]. The reason the majority support assisted death is because they only think of their self, they probably think it is comforting having that choice just in case. But they have not really thought it through and probably just think they would be gaining a right. They may even think that such a belief shows they are more compassionate than others. People think those who want rape to be legal are rapists etc, even though making rape legal would significantly reduce rape as women would be more responsible. People are usually more bothered about how they are perceived than implications of a law. People already have the right to refuse treatment, they don't have to be hooked to a life support machine and suffer or even take medication. They can have a dignified death already [2]. Deathwithdignity.org says "The patient"s primary objective is not to end an otherwise open-ended span of life, but to find dignity in an already impending exit from this world. They"re participating in an act to shorten the agony of their final hours, not killing themselves; cancer (or another common underlying condition) is killing them." However a dignified death can be achieved without killing yourself. And how can killing yourself make you worthy of respect? The answer is it can't. Fearful people will tell you anything. The message sent to people suffering with depression is that suicide is okay sometimes. If you ask anybody if they think suicide should be legal, the answer will be no way. So why do so many believe in assisted death? It is because they are told that Physician-assisted dying isn"t suicide legally, morally or ethically, and that patients are already dying and therefore are not choosing death over life but one form of death over another. [3] These are yet more lies, of course drinking something that you know will kill you is suicide whether you are terminally ill or not. It is also wrong to discriminate by allowing some people but not others the right to kill them self. Everyone is equal and should be treated as such. Supporters of assisted suicide may tell you that paralyzed people can't kill themself, and should be given the same "right" as other people even though no-one has a right to commit suicide. What we should do is encourage people to enjoy the life they have, and not give up hope or be miserable or waste their life. If cancer patients kill themselves rather than undergo treatment, then medical research to cure cancer is unnecessary and will not receive much funding. Suicide laws remove incentives to improve life, this is more important than trying to stop pain. It is true at one point cancer had no way of being treated, and people who could be saved will die because of an assisted death law. This is one reason why we shouldn't give up on hope. There are people who are terminally ill who can live many years longer than predicted and even those with weeks to live can enjoy life, see video below In the video I showed in the previous round the son makes his mum feel bad by saying he doesn't feel happy progressing in life because her mum can't progress. Her daughter makes her feel worthless and a burden too, she says she doesn't want to see her mum suffer but instead of making her feel better she says she'd like her mum to die. Assisted death law causes family members to think they don't have to be strong for someone, and make it possible to make someone feel worthless without nobody saying a bad word to them. The mother's fear of blinking for yes or no is unrealistic like all fears are. It is wrong to enable people to reduce the quality of someone's life, so that it can end sooner in order to inherit something sooner or make life easier. Just because someone has a person's permission to do something doesn't mean they should. The little girl in the video made a choice based on a lie (just like those told they'll have a dignified death) about going to heaven and having to wait to see her parents in happy land. If children who are terminally ill can have assisted suicide, what's next? Will everyone be allowed to kill themselves? Will you even have a choice? Spending more time with family is better than dying sooner, you may die before a cure is found. I still don't know why it is so important to know exactly how long you have to spend with family and friends. Family members and friends will not be comforted, they will find it harder to enjoy their own life because they'll be counting the days down and have less time with someone they love. They'll feel guilty enjoying life when they could be spending time with someone with little time left. Assisted suicide means a lot of people will witness someone close die, it is unlikely they'd witness someone die if it were illegal, The 29 year old woman in your sources says "My question is: Who has the right to tell me that I don't deserve this choice? That I deserve to suffer for weeks or months in tremendous amounts of physical and emotional pain? Why should anyone have the right to make that choice for me?" - Clearly, she thinks that anyone who opposes assisted suicide wants her to suffer. The reality is no-one is making any decision to make her suffer, or saying she should suffer, people who oppose assisted suicide are just against her killing herself because they think she should enjoy life, and set an example to others i.e. show others that life is worth living. [1] http://www.dailymail.co.uk... [2] http://www.nhs.uk... [3] https://www.deathwithdignity.org...