In Support of Choice 3 Society's interest in preserving life must prevail, but not when death imminent and pain is intolerable. There is no meaningful difference between unplugging a patient's ventilator and prescribing a lethal drug. This choice calls for improving patients' quality of life, not hastening their death. Suicidal people usually suffer from depression or pain, or both. These symptoms can be treated effectively.
Suicide is a tragic, individual act.
Legalizing assisted suicide would make this tragedy the social norm. Society cannot legalize assisted suicide without inviting the kind of abuses that occur in the Netherlands, where physician-assisted suicide is widely practiced. Involving doctors in assisted suicide would further weaken public confidence in the healthcare system. In Opposition to Choice 3 When patients talk about suicide, they're desperately asking for care, not death. A right to die could easily become a duty to die, especially for the elderly.