I want to talk to you about a subject that is controversial to many people: assisted suicide. Assisted suicide should be legal in all states and for everyone 18 years or older or who have a parents permission. That would not be the only restriction on the matter; they could also have a waiting period, so that people who are considering suicide could have some time to think about if it is the right thing to do. Making assisted suicide legal would stop the number of suicides in public places and would bring peace to people who are in pain and do not want to feel pain anymore. Some people are being affected negatively because they choose to end their life in a public area. People choose to kill themselves because they have been through a lot of negative things, or they have a condition that makes them feel a lot of pain and it cannot be helped.

       Assisted suicide should be legal in every state because many elderly have requested assisted suicide for many reasons. According to an article on verywell.com , elderly people in Oregon were asked why they were requesting assisted suicide, and 86% of elderly people reported a decreasing ability to participate in activities that made life enjoyable, 100% reported loss of autonomy, and 86% reported loss of dignity. The United States of America already has one state that has passed that law, which is Oregon. They passed the Death With Dignity act in 1997. The law states that anyone wishing to end their life has to be a resident of the state.  In a cnn article, 29 year old Brittany Maynard who was diagnosed with brain cancer. She only had six moths to live but because her body was young and healthy she is likely to physically hang on for a long time even though her cancer would be eating away at her mind. She would probably would have suffered in hospital care for weeks or even months. Brittany and her family came to realize that death with dignity was the only choice. She moved to Oregon in 2014 to end her life. This could happen to multiple people and some are not financially stable enough to move to a different state to chose the Death With Dignity Act.  This is why the Death and Dignity Act shold be legal in all states.

        Assisted suicide is important because it could help someone stop feeling pain and also stop public suicides and the effects on people who witness someone's death.  If assisted suicide becomes legal, it would help a lot of people with terminal illnesses. Assisted suicide would help elderly people who do not want to live anymore and who feel that life is not enjoyable anymore.  People who witness someone die have said that no matter what they do they cannot forget what they saw. Children who have seen someone died in front of them will be traumatized because of that experience. An article on nctsn.org states that children who have witnessed a death will have constant reminders of the situation, like the hairstyle of an abuser or monkey bars where a child got shot. Those kinds of situation can make a child not enjoy life and have irrational fears. This could also happen to adults who saw someone commit suicide. 

          Some people say that legalizing assisted suicide would not do anything better for people. They also say that it is not right because it goes against their religion and that it would negative affect the people that love them. The same people say that there is never a reason good enough to take your own life. I do not agree with those people because it is better to let someone go who is in pain than having that person around and letting them feel all that pain. They say that choosing to end their life is selfish, but I feel that trying to keep someone alive that does not want to be alive and feel pain is really selfish. They are just thinking of themselves and not about the other person. 

         In conclusion, assisted suicide should be legal so that people with terminal illnesses could stop feeling pain. This could also help elderly people who feel that life is not enjoyable any more and that have lost autonomy and do not want to live anymore because of it. It could also stop suicide in public areas that affect the people in that area, which would stop the number of kids and adults who are traumatized because they saw someone die in front of them. That is why I am asking you to let the Death With Dignity Act be legalized in all states.