There is an incredibly complex battle raging across the United States about whether or not it is socially acceptable to allow a doctor to help a patient commit suicide if they are suffering beyond help.

In my eyes this is a decision best left to the person who feels they have a right to die to avoid further suffering. If I was sound of mind and so desperate to end my life to stop the pain then it should be my right if there’s nothing further that can be done. I support doctor assisted suicide because if I’ve gotten to the point where I want to die, I want to die painlessly and not jumping off a bridge and experiencing something horrifying and even more excruciating before death.

One of the largest arguments against doctor assisted suicide is that ending someone’s life is playing god, but as the infamous Dr. Kevorkian himself said, “Any time you interfere with the natural process, you’re playing god.”

Kevorkian has a great point, any time you extend someone’s life with medicine you are in effect playing god, so if you don’t want your doctor playing god with you then don’t see a doctor. In fact there’s a sect of religious people in Oregon that believe in just that and have received extensive media attention because children have been dying as a result of the parents beliefs.

With that argument made I’ll proceed to a question you really need to ask yourself: who really benefits banning doctor assisted suicide? It’s not the doctor who feels terrible for the patient and wishes they could do something. It’s not the patient who’s in utter agony every waking moment who only wishes it would end before they suffer even more. It’s the industries who’s profits depend on the suffering of others.

I’m a particularly harsh critic of super corporations in America and I say begrudgingly that you cannot blame them completely for the problem, because there are other groups that would gain from doctor assisted suicide being completely banned. One example would be pharmaceutical companies, who don’t want someone to die if they’re swallowing hundreds of dollars in pills every month. Another example could sadly be a medical professional’s union who’s protecting the livelihoods of their members who depend on patients having problems that need fixing, and a patient with a persistent problem is a steady cash flow.

Oregon has a system in place called the “Death with Dignity Act” that has all sorts of fail-safes for potential problems and moral arguments that people may have. For example it takes at least thirty days and two requests to be euthanized so that you don’t rush into it without time to think. You also cannot have just one doctor say there’s nothing that can be done and then apply for euthanasia. Oregon has been extremely meticulous in measuring what worries people and has written the act to address it quite well.

While it’s always a sad occasion when a life ends with euthanasia being a choice you can at least know that your loved one died in peace with a lot less suffering than necessary.