In 2008, a young girl was forced to witness her grandmother deteriorate before her eyes. She watched the woman who taught her almost everything about life die slowly and painfully. Her grandmother went through amputation after amputation due to gangrene caused by diabetes. After a long year of surgeries, pain, and tears, the doctors revealed that her grandmother’s chance of survival was close to zero. Six months later, her grandmother finally went to a better place. In those six months, the girl’s own mother began to go out late at night and not return until morning, smelling of cigarettes, with an empty bank account. The girl, at 11, was forced to grow up faster than most and become a mother to her younger sisters. Her grandmother’s death would spiral her into depression and indirectly cause her attempted suicide in 2013.

If assisted suicide (or PAD – physician aid in dying) had been an option for this family, this story could have been much different. Assisted suicide is currently legal in five U.S. states – Washington, Oregon, New Mexico, Montana, and Vermont – and other countries around the world. Although many believe that the legalization of assisted suicide could cause an abuse of power, it is worth the risk in order to prevent unnecessary suffering.

Physician-assisted suicide is intended for a patient who is terminally ill and has little to no hope of survival. In the states where it is legal, the patient has to meet certain court requirements: being terminally ill; making two verbal requests, along with a written one; and not being clinically depressed. In addition, the life-ending medication must be administered by the patient herself, not by the physician. However, even with these requirements and regulations in place, opponents fear that risks would come with its national legalization. Many are concerned about the possibility of abuse.

Rita Marker and Kathi Hamlon, members of the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, state that the laws against any form of euthanasia are made to prevent abuse and protect patients from unethical doctors and are not intended to make anyone, including patients and family members, suffer. Many people believe, however, that the value of human life would be belittled. If euthanasia or assisted suicide were an option, they worry, families and doctors might give up hope of recovery too quickly.

Although these concerns are realistic, there are ways to avoid them, and, I believe, the positives of assisted suicide outweigh the risks. It is human nature to avoid pain, sadness, and suffering. Why, as humans, would we want to force others to experience what we dread?

Assisted suicide is not a way to end a life too soon, but a way to save an ill person, and his/her loved ones, from severe suffering. The right not to suffer is a natural human right. It was argued in the 1996 Supreme Court case of Vacco v. Quill that “the right of a competent, terminally ill person to avoid excruciating pain and embrace a timely and dignified death bears the sanction of history and is implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.” This means that humans who are terminally ill and conscious have the right to choose their death and should not be forced to suffer.

If a person wants to avoid pain and suffering by way of suicide, that is exactly what they are going to do. If physician-assisted suicide is an option, however, then violent and traumatic suicides can be avoided. This would make it easier on family, friends, and the sick person. Assisting doctors can also immediately save vital organs for transplant and thus save lives in the process.

The legalization of assisted suicide does bring many dangerous possibilities; however, its illegality brings even more. Laws can be created to prohibit abuse, to limit the influence of insurance agencies, and to maintain the value of human life. Laws cannot keep mothers from abandoning their children to go spend their life savings in a casino. Laws cannot stop a child from having to grow up too soon. Laws cannot remove traumatic memories from people who find their loved ones dead from another form of suicide.

Human suffering can be ended in a fast, painless, and non-traumatic way. If your grandmother were terminally ill, would you want her to spend her last days on earth suffering and wishing for a better, more dignified death?