Issue 669 Your right to die September 2, 2015

If assisted suicide is legal, does this mean you have a right to die?  Let us discuss.

Do we have a right to die?:  Assisted suicide in hospitals is just that, suicide.  This form of suicide is meant to aid people in ending their physical suffering from disease or catastrophic injury. But if we have a right to have assisted suicide for physical pain, does this mean we have a right to end our lives any time we wish?  Basically, if you have a right to end your own suffering with help, then you have a right to end your suffering without help.  Additionally, you may commit suicide for whatever reason you now wish.  People can commit suicide for emotional, or even for insurance money as well (if a person has a right to die, then the insurance company must hand over the money in case of a suicide).  Basically, once they allowed assisted suicide to become legal, it becomes a double standard to allow only one form or one reason for suicide and not the others.  In other words, the door for the argument that we can choose how and when we die has been opened.

Conclusion:  With some States permitting assisted suicide it makes the argument easier to allow for assisted suicide for emotional problems.  Once that part of the argument has passed, it then leaps to the next level which makes it that insurance money cannot be denied beneficiaries of the suicide victim.  Basically, the law opens up lawsuits for this to happen.  Once this occurs, it can be surmised that people would be allowed to commit suicide on their own, and even given ways of doing so which cause the least amount of pain and suffering.  This will also mean special hospital rooms or other special facilities so that it can be proven that a person committed suicide and was not murdered (for insurance purposes and to negate the need for a criminal investigation).  Basically, you will be allowed to commit suicide so long as no one is harmed in the process.  This is the logical conclusion of the right to die debate.  The only issue left now is for someone to sue for the right to commit suicide for emotional trauma for it to occur and cause the dominos to fall into place.