Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, a Swiss-American psychiatrist, once stated, “Lots of my dying patients say they grow in bounds and leaps, and finish all the unfinished business. But assisting a suicide is cheating them of these lessons, like taking a student out of school before final exams. That's not love; it's projecting your own unfinished business.” In this quote Ross symbolizes the terminally patient as a student who has been through the course in school bur it taken out just before finals. Ross is basically saying that allowing a terminally ill patient to request and receive assisted suicide is pointless and is not beneficial to the patient. Assisted suicide has become a highly-controversial issue as more and more terminally ill patients have…show more content… Following this quote, she outlines how after Oregon passed its physician-assisted suicide act in 1998, the regular suicide rate of Oregon “increased significantly.” This trend continue steadily and “By 2010, Oregon’s regular suicide rate was 41 percent above the national average.” (Dore) Dr. Jacqueline Harvey of the Lozier Institute also agrees that approval of assisted suicide will increase the rate of “regular” suicides. She states in her article, “Research: Assisted suicide increases other suicides”, that "There is the issue of suicide contagion, where suicides are pretty much like an infectious disease," Harvey explains. "It's actually been shown statistically that after assisted suicide was legalized in Oregon, the suicide rate for teenagers and illegal suicides for other people rose."(Harvey) This shows that once society accepts assisted suicide people will view it as the normal and acceptable solution to hardships and depressions. Dore and…show more content… Harvey also presents an argument not seen by Doerflinger. She states that some patients who request assisted suicide are not doing it for their own freedom or dignity; they simply do it because they do not want to be a burden to their love ones. Dr. Kelly Pound supports Dr. Harvey by stating that “The top three reasons terminally ill patients choose to end their lives – loss of control, loss of enjoyment and feeling like a burden to others.” The feeling of causing their family financial and emotional burdens drives patients to view assisted suicide as their own option to relive their family. Patients feel they have lost control of their health situation and this decision allows them to gain back a sense of control. The loss of self- worth can lead to an individual feeling that death is the only logical option for them. No one wants to be a burden to their family so natural once that mindset is establishes the person will find the easiest solution to the problem even if that mean death. I have seen first-hand through a friend that committed suicide that she felt that her family would be better off without the burden of her sickness and behavioral problem that she took her own life at a very young age. She did not get to see that her death was an even greater burden on her
