Our Right to End of Life Choices
Assisted suicide affects everyone. And it affects our lives not only our deaths. Assisted suicide will prevent people from suffering through their terminal illnesses by allowing them to end their lives before their illness can. I believe that people should have the choice of a medical death if they wish, and to withhold this right to decide from the patients forces them to die from their terminal illness. By allowing the patients to decide when they feel ready to die and to do so peacefully and willingly, we give them the choice to skip the pain and suffering both for the patients and for their loved ones. In the articles “Let Dying People End their Suffering” by Diane Rehm and “Physician-Assisted Suicide is not Progressive” by Ira Byock we are able to see both viewpoints on the situation. Rehm argues that this should be an option available to all in contrast to Byock who believes that we should stay away from assisted suicide and focus our energy on improving our hospice care. Rehm’s effective use of personal stories to convey her message successfully persuades the readers to reason with her, while Byock refuses to acknowledge the importance of personal decision in this situation.
A Limit to our Medical Abilities
The article “Let Dying People End their Suffering” by Diane Rehm, discusses the right to physician-assisted suicide and the importance of this being an available option for everyone. She states how medically assisted suicide is different from non-medically assisted suicide. As those who commit suicide do not want to live. While those who choose to have a physician-assisted death have chosen to end their life because of their terminal illness, and if given the option would choose a live a healthy life. She points out that many people who argue against assisted suicide say that we should believe in our doctors and the treatments they are performing, but there is only so much a doctor can help with. Our medical abilities are limited, and this leaves many patients seeking an end to their suffering peacefully. Rehm concludes with the point that everyone should be given the right to make their own choices and have those choices both available and supported by our government and health care providers.
Rehm’s use of Personal Narrations and Perspective
Rehm effectively used her personal narrations and perspective to prove that assisted suicide should be an option available to all patients. By using her personal stories of her friend and her husband she was able to appeal to the readers' emotional side and allow them to imagine themselves in the situations:
“my friend found solace in knowing she would have this choice. Her husband and children […] wouldn’t have to watch her cancer torture her mercilessly as it took her life.”
This anecdote allows the reader to make a personal connection to the idea. Rehm successfully achieved a strong emotional appeal because most readers are able to relate to the suffering her friend endured and understand why she would want the option of assisted suicide. Rehm successfully proves that “the end of life is an extremely personal experience” and by refusing people the right to the choice of assisted suicide you are refusing people the choice of their own death.
Doctors are Trained to Save
In the article “Physician-Assisted Suicide is not Progressive” by Ira Byock the perspective against assisted suicide is discussed. Byock argues that assisted suicide is against the doctor’s role and training, as their job is to save lives not end them. She declares that assisted suicide should not be an option and we should focus on the quality of life we can give the terminally ill as opposed to jumping the line and going to the most extreme solution. Byock blames the lack of quality of medical assistance given to patients as a reason to why people are turning to assisted suicide as an answer. She discusses the issue that many people are declined financial aid because the treatments are too expensive but are approved for lethal drugs. This is because the criteria for assisted suicide is more permissive than the criteria for hospice care. Overall Byocks main concern is that we go straight for assisted suicide rather than explore our other options.
Byock’s use of Evidence and Reasoning
Byock’s use of factual evidence and reasoning make her argument strong but she fails to acknowledge the right to a personal decision. She illuminates the fact that our medical care could use improvement, and this could open more doors for patients looking at their options:
“If the moral worth of a society can be measured by how well it cares for the most vulnerable of its members, the America in which I live and practice medicine scores poorly.”
She makes a valid point as there is always more, we can try to discover and work on to improve our medical care, but she fails to see that as of right now there is a limit to our capabilities. As Rehm states, there is only so much we can do. Byock states bluntly that she believes that assisted suicide shouldn’t be an option and that we should focus solely on improving and funding our medical care but doing so would take away the patient’s choice to do either solution: “But ‘the right to die’ is just a slogan. No civil right to commit suicide exists in any social compact”. Here she is narrow-minded as she doesn’t recognize that some people want to die, they don’t wish to continue their life with their illness any further and they believe that treatment won’t give them the life they wish.
Final Opinions
Overall the topic of assisted suicide is delicate and very grey. As there are many different viewpoints and beliefs on what is right or wrong. Both these articles brought up very strong points, but I personally agree more strongly with Diane Rehm’s article as I do believe the most important decision for this topic is the right to choose. Rehm’s did a good job of convincing the reader through the personal stories she used to convey her message. She communicates her belief that end of life choices are an inalienable human right that should be supported by the state. While Ira Byock was unsuccessful in her attempt to persuade the reader as she failed to look at all viewpoints and acknowledge that others may have different wishes. These texts will help me in my further research as I now understand the two extremes and am able to argue both sides. Moving forward I would like to develop my understanding of hospice care and how we could improve that, so it can be a reliable option for patients who do want to live longer, and comfortably. I hope to also gain more knowledge about the effects of assisted suicide on the loved ones of the patients.
