Euthanasia should be a choice

Euthanasia is a term among doctors known as assisted suicide. The topic is controversial because it is associated with weakness - a person choosing to die willingly. But the patient’s needs always come first in patient care, so what if they need to stop living? Should doctors give them this? Try to step into the shoes of a dying patient.

Their loved ones are in excruciating pain watching them die. There’s no feasible cure on the horizon for them. He or she doesn’t want to live anymore, so they ask their doctor to help them commit suicide. Can a patient have the right to ask for death?

I believe a patient does have the right to commit assisted suicide under certain conditions. The patient must be in a great deal of pain with no cure that suits their needs. Then it becomes their decision, to live or to die. Assisted suicide isn’t showing weakness and it isn’t selfish. But it should not be taken lightly by patients, loved ones or doctors. Euthanasia is a choice that requires careful consideration. But it is a choice that should be allowed to be made.

Megan Sudderth

Spokane