Assisted Suicide: Know the Facts

    According to the Merriam-Webster medical dictionary, physician assisted suicide is know as, "suicide by a patient facilitated by means or information (as a drug prescription or indication of the lethal dosage) provided by a physician who is aware of how the patient intends to use such means or information". In the United States 4 out of 50 states have legalized physician assisted suicide. It is not ethical to say that patients have the right to die when they aren't in their right state of mind, when physicians have taken the Hippocratic Oath, and because miracles do happen.

    In life there can be miracles when horrific things occur. Terry Wallis is a real life miracle from waking up from a 19 year coma. At the age of 20 Terry was in a severe car accident on July 13th, 1984 which put him into a coma. A few months after the accident Terry had been in a minimally conscious state but the doctors then declared him to be brain dead. On June 11th, 2003 Terry had woken up and started to talk with his first word being "mom". After he had said, "mom" he continued talking and even remembered things.  

    In 2008 Jordan Taylor was a normal nine year old boy from Hillsboro, Texas until he was in a car accident. He had suffered an orthopedic decapitation in the accident which is where his spinal cord was still in tact but his head and neck were separated. Physicians operated on Jordan by reattaching his skull with titanium rods and a metal plate. The physicians believed that Jordan had a one-to-two percent chance of living after the operation.  Jordan recovered fully from the surgery and was back to school in 4-5 months.

    Those two people are perfect examples of miracles. If physicians would have assisted in a suicide for either of those patients it would have been terrible. Not many people would think that someone could wake from a 19 year coma but it happened. If Terry's family would have requested a lethal drug to end his life after declared brain dead he wouldn't have had the opportunity to be alive today remembering things and talking. When Jordan's mother knew he had a one-to-two percent chance of living after his surgery and she had decided to ask for a lethal drug to end her sons pain then he wouldn't be up walking like a normal child again. Miracles do happen and when physicians are assisting in suicides it takes away a miracle that could happen with some patients.