8 - Suicide and euthanasia

Summary

The vast majority of us will end our lives struggling against one disease or other that ultimately kills us. Or at least this is true of people in the United States. Relatively few will be killed in accidents (5 percent) or assaults (0.7 percent). Only about 1.4 percent will take their own lives. (2004 statistics provided by the US Department of Health and Human Services [2007]).

But when, and how, should we die? It can be entirely reasonable to fight to the end against diseases or injuries that ultimately prove to be fatal. Since our very lives are at stake, seeking aggressive medical treatment, including drug therapy for the control of pain, is often the best choice. However, it is not always the best choice. For some of us, it will be best to decline treatment, and let ourselves die. For others, a more proactive choice can be best, especially if our well-being has been undermined by a condition that will not kill us, or that will do so very slowly.

When living on is against our interests, it can be reasonable to end our lives, preferably with the help of a medical expert. That assistance might take the form of assisting in our suicides. However, assistance in the form of euthanasia is justifiable as well, especially for people who are too incapacitated to take their own lives. The decision to end our lives, with or without assistance, is one we will want to postpone as long as we can, for when living on can still be good it is a grave misfortune to die. But for some of us that decision is prudent as well as morally permissible.