I once saw a t-shirt that stated, “The leading cause of death is life.” Death is inevitable. So we, might as well spare those who have to take a longer and more arduous road to the same common end. Right?


Picture this: loved ones surround you. Because of the pain killers you are on, you can hear them but only as though you were in a dream. The pain persists. You try to focus but your mind is a blur. This scenario is a mild form of what it is like to die of a terminal disease. Why do we not let a patient in such pain die? Physician assisted suicide (PAS) in ending the life of a person who has a terminal incurable disease. However, PAS remains a touchy subject for most people. The opponents to PAS clam that it violates the Hippocratic oath, which states “do no harm.” By euthanizing a person, a doctor is seen as doing harm. Another reason why opponents perceive PAS to be immoral is that it demeans the value of human life.


Despite these claims against PAS, it is the morally just course of action. A doctor violating the Hippocratic oath to relive a terminal-ill persons from the pain and allow the person to die is much better then putting the patient to suffer through life-preserving measures. PAS does not demean human life; because PAS allows for the patient to die in a higher state of being rather than in a state of frailty. Helping a person end their suffering is one of the most substantial reasons why PAS is morally just. It helps lessen the pain felt by the family and friends of the patient. Dr. Goodwin, recently interviewed by Time and a man who helped pass PAS in Oregon stated, “[W]e all have not gotten used to the idea yet, that we are all going to die”(Luscombe) This quote explains a vast part of the resistance to PAS. Most of us don’t want to die and the very idea of death frightens us. When dealing with a dying person, We don’t want to let him/her die because we are scared of death. PAS can help with the passing because family and friends have a chance to say a final goodbye. The last claim that makes PAS morally just is that it allows the patient to die on his or her own terms. I know that I don’t want to die over medicated, frightened or in pain, and I don’t want to die pleading to God to come and take me away. I want to die with my family around me, with little pain and in a place where I am aware what is happening. Every person should have that option.


The U.S. should make PAS legal. There should be laws in place so doctors and the public do not abuse the power to die; but overall it should be an available option for people dying of a terminal illness. The more pressing problem that needs to be resolved, is our violation of terminally-ill peoples’ rights to escape the pain of dying. Patrick Henry, one of our nation’s Founding Fathers, stated in his speach “Give me liberty or give me death”, “Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!”Without liberty, Patrick Henry would have rather died. Ironically, people who want to be euthanized are not granted this same liberty.


Some people die peacefully in their sleep: others die contracted from Huntington's and terminal cancer. It is morally unjust to force patients to die in pain. If PAS were allowed, people with terminal illnesses would have the option to die on their own terms. The United States Constitution was formed to “secure the Blessings of Liberty.” If we all have liberty, then why do doctors not have the liberty to perform euthanasia? Is a life without liberty worth living?