nursing homes and hospitals unconsciously, with tubes sticking out of their body ("Last rights," 1997, p. 22).
The call for physician-assisted suicide comes in an era when life can be prolonged by medical technology. By relying upon machines for their survival, the power of the dying patients has been wrested away from them (Kass and Lund, 1996, p. 21). In the United States, many old people receive futile treatments that have no effect other than prolonging their existence, without improving the quality of life ("Last rights," 1997, p. 24).
Physician-assisted suicide is not an option to be used wantonly. Patients who suffer from severely deteriorating diseases with no likely prospect of recovery should have the right to get help from their physicians to terminate their lives by choice. These people suffer from diseases such as multiple sclerosis, end-stage lung disease, advanced brain cancer, etc. For many of them, hospice care does not alleviate their suffering. Not only do they suffer from unbearable pain, they have to endure the gradual disintegration of their bodily functions and mental powersùall things that make them human. Therefore, these courageous people who want to leave the world, while their minds are still functioning, should have the right to seek help from their physicians.
In addition, physician-assisted suicide enables the dying patients to save their families and friends from enduring the pain and anguish of watching their deterioration, along with economic depletion (McCor
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