Life, according to Dictionary.com, is merely a “quality that distinguishes a vital and functioning being from a dead body.” However, life is something so deep and rooted in our society that a simple definition cannot do it justice. Life is the core of our society-- the basis of many of our laws and values depend on it. Without life, our home, the earth would simply be a chunk of rock, having no meaning or purpose in the universe.

Although life is so important, people today are willing to throw their lives away at every problem they encounter, valuing personal preference or choice over life. From 2006 to 2017, about 26.2% of all women and 26.8% of all men in the US committed suicide.

Almost everyone can agree that suicide is not a good thing. Now then, why is physician-assisted suicide, or euthanasia, more acceptable than suicide?

Euthanasia is sought after by people who believe that they have a terminal illness and are going through unbearable suffering. These individuals choose euthanasia because they have decided that they would rather die on their own terms than suffer for an extended amount of time, just to die at the end. It is true that people should not have to go through so much pain or suffering. Nevertheless, people are not perfect and their decisions for themselves may not really be the best choice for them. People do not realize that euthanasia can cause serious problems in society, such as endangering vulnerable patients.

If physician-assisted suicide is legalized, specific groups of people who tend to feel more hopelessness than others will have the chance to kill themselves without realizing that their situation can be changed or their mental illness treated. Individuals with mental illness always have a distorted view of reality and cannot tell what is best for them. According to Better Health Channel, those who commit suicide many times have mental illnesses such as depression, psychosis, and more.

Even though euthanasia is defined differently as than suicide, there are many reports that show that institutions that already allow the practice of euthanasia provide insufficient safeguards for those with mental illnesses and have no real reason to die.

A report for Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act shows that in a hospital in Oregon, less than 5.5% of the patients that received physician-assisted suicide were tested for mental illness. This is an alarmingly low number, considering the number of suicidal people there is in the US.

Although the patient may wish to die, they may not have a clear view of life and reality. Without knowing if they have a mental illness or not, physicians cannot know if they are really in a hopeless situation or if they are throwing away their lives for an incompetent and foolish reason. Unfortunately, there is a very little history of institutions allowing physician-assisted suicide testing their patients for mental illness before proceeding to inject them with a lethal substance.

Not only is there insufficient testing for mental illness, but there can also be a wrong prescription of a terminal illness. Often, people want to die on their own terms when they are prescribed with a terminal illness. However, doctors are not perfect and cannot guarantee that their predictions are 100% correct. What will protect patients from a misdiagnosis? Nothing, if they had already gone through the process of euthanasia.

In addition, the legalization of physician-assisted suicide can compromise the relationship between patients and doctors. Not all patients really wish to die. Often, physician-assisted suicide is cheaper than treatment for a terminal ailment.

“...The practices will pose the greatest risks to those who are poor, elderly, members of a minority group, or without access to good medical care… The clinical safeguards that have been proposed to prevent abuse and errors would not be realized in many cases,” states a report by the New York State Task Force on Life and the Law.

This means that those with a lower income and cannot afford proper medical care and therefore feel more hopelessness than those who have access to medical treatment will have a higher chance of dying without really wanting to. Because of their financial situation, they will feel as if they have no choice but to turn to euthanasia for aid.

Furthermore, the encouragement of euthanasia can imply that the lives of the elderly are burdensome to society and unwanted by giving the elderly the opportunity to leave this world as they please. Because of this, people may start to see the elderly as not people who need aid, but a group that is weighing down today’s society.

People like to believe that they have the right to die. This is incredibly far from the truth. Just like people do not have the right to live, they also should not be able to choose when they will die.

My point is not that hospitals should sustain the lives of corpses or the brain dead. I agree that it is only respectful that people whose conscious has already left them should have the chance to go now that they are only physically alive and have no more purpose in this world. My point is that making physician-assisted suicide legal for those who are fully conscious of themselves and the world around them will impose major ethical issues for people today.

It is human nature to want to have control over every aspect of life–and now, even death. I am also guilty of this. I have an urge to have control over what I can and cannot do, who I can and cannot talk to-- I even wish to control the weather sometimes.

Nevertheless, it is foolish to think that humans should control the most complex and important things in the universe like time, space, and life and death. Life and death are two larger-than-life powers that in this era, humans cannot truly control. It is our duty as members of a society to maintain the important morals that we have.

Let’s appreciate life while we’re still living it. No matter what religion or philosophy people believe in, we can agree that the life we’re living right now is unique and we’ll never have it the same way again. Of course, there are always struggles and turmoil in the world somewhere, but never forget how beautiful life really is.