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EDITOR’S NOTE: Freshmen in Mr. Naylor’s ninth grade honors English class recently read an article by Rob Wright titled “Why Death With Dignity in the U.S. Remains the Holy Grail.” The article looks at the controversial subject of Physician Assisted Suicide from many different angles. The students were then asked to compose an opinion piece expressing their feelings on whether or not Physician Assisted Suicide should be legalized in all 50 states in the USA (currently it is allowed in five states). What follows are some of the top student responses, both in favor of and opposing Physician Assisted Suicide.

In the past few decades, there has been a big controversy over whether or not we should allow physician assisted suicide in the United States. For those of you that don’t know, physician assisted suicide is when a licensed medical doctor helps a patient who is of sound mind but terminally ill and living in pain to die. It is basically like whenever you put a sick pet that is suffering down.

I believe that we should allow physician assisted suicide. After all, the person who wants to be put to death gets to choose that they want it to happen. I think that we should legalize it in all fifty states because it is humane and makes complete financial sense for taxpayers. In many ways it is just like taking medicine.

First, physician assisted suicide is completely humane. According to an article titled “Why Death with Dignity in the U.S. Remains the Holy Grail”, a woman named Terry Shaivo suffered an event which left her in a persistent vegetative state. She was starved to death by the removal of a feeding tube after a court order said that she had the right to die. It is not ethical, dignified, or humane to starve someone to death. PAS can eliminate some situations like this. That is just one of, probably, several cases where something inhumane happened because physician assisted suicide isn’t legal, and there are going to be many more to come if we don’t legalize it.

Next, it makes total financial sense for taxpayers. Often, people in a critical state go to nursing homes or end-of-life treatments. A private room averages $94,170 a year for one person! According to the article, “it wouldn’t take long for 95% of Americans who earn less than $154,643 a year to blow their life savings away.” Many of these people just enter Medicaid to pay for it all, so the burden is on the taxpayers. As sad as it sounds, it would help the country if some of these people on Medicaid would commit physician assisted suicide.

Lastly, physician assisted suicide is just like taking medicine. Many people argue that “we shouldn’t be playing God”. By taking some forms of medicine, you are preventing death, so isn’t that basically the same thing? We can take medicine to prevent diseases that have wiped out millions of people from the world. If using physician assisted suicide is playing God, than isn’t taking medicine too? Also, if you think it is against your religion, than you don’t have to use it.

In conclusion, we should legalize physician assisted suicide in all 50 states. It is completely inhumane to keep someone in a critical state from dying if they want to die; it is the best thing for the country; and it is just like taking medicine. It is unfair to stop someone from dying. Therefore, everyone should have the option of physician assisted suicide.