¶ … philosophical issue ethics, epistemology, religion. You find a topic a debate, order present sides debate. Here, position, relative issue;, , final version paper. Assisted suicide

There is presently much controversy regarding the concept of assisted suicide, as while some people believe that it is a perfectly ethical thing, others consider that it is immoral and should be illegalized. In contrast to euthanasia, assisted suicide deals with the individual taking his own life consequent to receiving the tools necessary for him or her to do so. Some people perceive this technique as an act through which doctors and patients are provided with the opportunity to cooperate in order to end the patient's suffering. However, when considering matters from a religious point-of-view, suicide is considered to be one of the worst sins. Many people are inclined to understand assisted suicide wrongly and it is essential for the masses to have a complex understanding of the concept before actually being able to vote in regard to it.

II. Assisted suicide is wrong because it influences individuals who suffer from

Many doctors who assist their patients in committing suicide tend to ignore the fact that they should first try to treat their patients for depression.
A. According to Balch and O'Bannon, "1) treatable depression, rather than the terminal illness itself, usually accounts for such a patient's expression of a wish to die; 2) after a diagnosis of terminal illness, a person normally goes through a series of stages of coming to terms with impending death and resolving unfinished business in his or her life, a valuable process that is cut short by acceding to a depression-induced request for assistance in suicide; and 3) given growing pressures to contain medical costs and prevailing social attitudes, if assisting suicide is legalized, many terminally ill patients will be led to feel they are burdens and have a duty to die"

B. Most patients who ask to be assisted as they commit suicide are not thinking rationally at the time when they make this decision. Their condition makes it difficult for them to see matters from an objective point-of-view and they are thus inclined to stop fighting for their lives. Furthermore, many of them are reluctant to stay alive because they consider themselves to be a burden for their families, given that their relatives typically pay for their medical services.

III. All individuals should have access to assisted suicide because each person needs to have total authority over…