Should Assisted Suicide Be Legalized?

Such a pleasure interviewing Professor Raphael Cohen-Almagor on my podcast, A Little LESS FEAR Podcast. His insights are illuminating and brings me to an understanding of different situations in life that could cause someone to call it to an end.

It's been over 20 years since the attempt I had with suicide. That situation helped me realize one of my purposes in life and in turn made me realize that suicide was never an option for me. However, what if someone is physically suffering, end-of-life suffering? I am taught in Buddhism, that you must complete your life no matter how much you are suffering, in order to clear karma. Karma clearing is sometimes completed through going through the suffering and going through the death process naturally. I once asked our monk if it was wrong to turn off monitors if someone is brain dead. He said that if the soul has left the body, aka brain dead, then in that case it is safe to turn off monitors.

In the podcast episode #110, Professor Almagor feels, out of having incredible life experience, that if the patient has suffered enough and is in their dying bed, why prolong the suffering, If they are coherent enough to say they are done, why not let them go with dignity? I also see this point of view and understand it too. I am stuck between feeling that is right, and also feeling that karma needs to be completed to have a cleaner slate in your next life.