The Economist has a section called "Open Future" where they invite and curate debate on big issues.
One of the interesting "conversations" going on now, is a series of op-ed pieces taking stances and making cases for/against "Assisted Dying", in all its forms.
(Note: I say "conversations", but there is no position/response debate. It is simply a series of op ed articles from one side or the other. The result is that each article stands as the authors own, complete thoughts. And there's no idiotic commenters.)
Each article makes a case for or against the subject, from the author's perspective.
The people who The Economist have invited to take part in the discussion are an interesting range of professions and perspectives. It is enlightening to hear reasonable and passionate opinions that run counter to my own.
Check out this specific conversation, or go up one level on their site to see other conversations on a wide range of other topics.
I'll be honest, the only argument I accept against assisted dying is if the patient can be shown to be incapable of making informed decisions themself (i.e. dementia, degradation of mental acuity, etc). I think we try and keep our loved ones living in poor health too long, because we don't want to let go. I saw it happen with my grandma on my mom's side. She was in her late 70s, and had lung cancer. She was not going to recover, and she knew it, so she decided not to seek treatment. My mom flew out to be with the rest of her family as they convinced her to go on chemo and radiation therapy, and she did, because she loved her children. But by accepting that, they removed her agency in choosing her method and time of death, and instead she hung on for maybe eight more months, lying in her recliner because it was the only place she could be comfortable enough to sleep, and slowly waiting in pain for the end as her breaths got shallower. I look at that situation and I see my mother as being selfish. So you weren't ready for your mom to die - No one ever is. It's not like she's some dog you can keep limping along because you're too attached to see that you're keeping them alive for you, and not for them. She deserved the right to die, then, even though Canada didn't have it at the time. She deserved to be able to avoid those months of pain and waiting for the reaper to show up like the ghost in It Follows.
The arguments against the sovereign rights of an adult over their own bodies are shaky at best. If the desire to die at a time of ones own choosing, rather than endure months of destructive, eventually fatal illness automatically puts a person into the category of mentally unsound there is an imposition of a personal morality upon another person who is experiencing or is going to experience a great deal of pain. To me that is a great injustice. I have never believed that guilt is an adequate reason for a person to choose to live and endure great suffering. If a person chooses to seek treatment, if a person chooses to simply live as long as they can, those efforts should be encouraged and supported. Positive goals of every kind should be supported, but saying to a person with a terminal illness 'Please don't seek an assisted death because you will hurt your loved ones.' is a negative. It binds a person with obligation, rather than love. A grandmother choosing a course of chemotherapy and radiation to see a grandchild be born or some other milestone is a beautiful, positive aspiration. We have to give the same respect to those who choose a comparatively comfortable, planned ending. There was one writer who commented that she would never support physician assisted death because she feared for the lives of her disabled friends and colleagues, and people like them. This author was not herself disabled. As someone who meets criteria and doesn't like the word 'disabled' this is an attempt to remove agency from people who were not gifted with whole and hearty bodies. The risk for abuse and misapplication of physician assisted death is definitely higher for people with disabilities just by having more interactions with physicians than the average person. That does not mean that someone else gets to make decisions about how we live or end our lives.