Susan Wolf's View On Assisted Suicide Summary

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Susan Wolf’s View On Assisted Suicide Melissa Huddleston Jeanne Henry PHI/200 1/31/2011 End of life issues are a sensitive topic, and at time politically polarizing. One of these issues that can be a major source of conflict is the issue of assisted suicide. Susan Wolf wrote an essay on this topic, titled Confronting Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, My Father’s Death. (Wolf, 2008.) I felt that her essay was well thought out and showed an ability to look at and understand both sides of the debate over assisted suicide and other end of life issues. That is often really hard for people to do, especially when it comes to an issue that is so emotional. Wolf states that through most of her life she had firm beliefs on the assisted suicide and end of life care. She actively worked on and was involved in the debate over physician assisted suicide. Wolfe’s opposed assisted suicide, and wrote extensively on the subject. However, when her father was diagnosed with cancer and began a slow decline she had to rethink how she felt about assisted suicide. It was…show more content…
I do not believe in assisted suicide. I believe that all life is precious, and that killing in any form is fundamentally wrong. Medical miracles happen all the time and one can never say whether that life can still be saved. This holds true whether one is talking about medical miracles or a belief in God and hoping for a divine miracle. Additionally I do not feel that in most cases any human should have the control over whether to end any life, whether that be their own or someone else’s. That is just too much power for most people to handle. I can say this from some experience, because I experienced a suicide within my close family. I also watched my own father suffer from and eventually die from a long illness. Both were painful, but the suicide was
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