In today's world there is a huge debate waging about whether or not physicians should be allowed to help patients with terminal diseases kill themselves. Many people think this should not be allowed to happen because the doctors will begin to show serial-murderer type signs in the psychology. People really believe that if doctors are allowed to help kill patients that they will start killing just for fun. I believe this side is grossly misrepresented. The doctor's are simply trying to help the patients escape their pain. They are not trying to just kill for the fun of it. I know of this conflict because I did a presentation on in it senior year in high school.
I found a site that did a very good job of explaining all the pros and cons. I only chose to look at the pros from this site. I really believe that the strongest argument from this site is the saving of health care costs which would save estates and insurance premiums. If a hospital has to keep a patient alive, they must pay for their food and all the tests necessary to keep that person alive, costing the hospital a large amount of money. Some estimates put that cost at 50,000 to 100,000 dollars. If they are insured, the insurance company must pay for that somehow. Most of the time they will raise the premiums for other people. If the patients are uninsured, the cost will just be imposed upon that person when they die in the form of repossession of property. That will take away money and estate from that person's next generation.
Another site does well to show the ethical arguments against assisted suicide. It shows that if assisted suicide was made legal that any person thinking that they were a burden on the family could commit suicide. It says that they are vulnerable members of society and can be pressured to commit suicide if that option is there. I know I wouldn't want to be under any pressure if I were forced to make a choice of that importance.
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