ysician aided suicide as a form of euthanasia and the moral and legal implications involved with it. There are four key arguments, which also translate into philosophical concerns, associated with euthanasia. The first is a person’s right to decide about his or her own life. People take for granted the life affecting choices they make on a daily basis, what career path to follow, when to marry, and when to have children-- just to name a few. The decision of when to die, without legal intervention, should also be considered as one of these natural rights. The second philosophical concern is that denying terminally ill patients the “natural right” to die is unfair and cruel. This point goes hand in hand with the subject of ordinary versus extraordinary treatment. A terminally ill patient has and will continue to have the right to prolong their life by means of ordinary treatment such as medicines and surgeries that do not involve excessive pain, expense, etc. When it becomes impossible for a person to continue living by means of ordinary treatment they are next given the choice to sustain their life by means of extraordinary treatment or they are given the option of refusing treatment. Many people choose the latter option on the basis of extraordinary treatment being associated with methods deemed unusual, difficult, dangerous, and expensive. The reality of refusal of treatment is a grim one. “What can be crueler than to let terminally ill cancer patients starve to death or wait for pneumonia when we can end their misery immediately (AE 233)?” By denying these people and others in similar circumstances the choice of an easy and painless death, we are ultimately condemning them to an existence filled with pain and despair. A third argument for euthanasia is that, by not giving people the option of physician aided suicide, we are in violation of the golden rule. Luckily, the majority of people will n...
