Debate: A right to die?

Do people have a right to die and even to commit suicide?

Background and context

This debate surrounds whether individuals have a right to die, or a right to commit suicide. This debate is most relevant to the right of individuals to decide, at the end of their life, that they would like to die, either by being deprived of treatment or by assisted suicide.

Write Subquestion here...

Yes

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No

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Defining mental illness: Individuals who desire suicide are clinically insane?

Yes

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No

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• Argument: Suicide does not equal insanity| Suicide does not equal insanity Lawrence Stevens "SUICIDE: A Civil Right". The Antipsychiatry Coalition. : "Furthermore, there isn't any good evidence that mental illness by any generally accepted definition is usually involved in a person's decision to commit suicide. In her book about teenage suicide, Marion Crook, B.Sc.N., says "teens considering suicide are not necessarily mentally disturbed. In fact, they are rarely mentally disturbed" (Every Parent's Guide To Understanding Teenagers & Suicide, Int'l Self-Counsel Press Ltd., Vancouver, 1988, p. 10). Psychologist Paul G. Quinnett, Ph.D., makes this observation in his book Suicide: The Forever Decision: "As we have already discussed, however, you do not have to be mentally ill to take your own life. In fact, most people who do commit suicide are not legally `insane.'"

Rights: Is suicide a civil liberty?

Yes

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No

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