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Even if a patient is depressed, as long as that patient knows who he is, where he is, and what is happening around him, he still has the mental awareness to decide the course of his life. This does not mean that suicide will be provided upon request without proper steps. Even a suicide for profit doctor will need to follow protocol to earn a $200 fee.
The final argument against euthanasia is that it will devalue human life and cites that billions of people throughout history have rejected legalizing it, and by virtue of numbers, euthanasia must be wrong. By that logic, we may as well throw out every globe and knock down every school that teaches us the world is round. If no one stood against the "wisdom" of the masses we would still be in the dark ages dying from the plague. Still, it cannot be said that every community rejected the idea. Greeks and Romans, renowned for their progressive science, technology and philosophy, considered suicide (assisted or otherwise) to be a viable solution in circumstances of great pain or when life was no longer tolerable.

Holland has decriminalized euthanasia for years with much success (Docker). The list of groundbreaking cases shows that, indeed, some of the legal definitions have been expanded. The United States will need to wrestle these finer points in court as well, but that is what our living law is made to do. Lawmakers need to be cautious when defining any euthanasia law to minimize abuse; however, research has shown the percentage of physician-assisted suicides has not significantly increased since Holland passed the law and much of the increase has been attributed to benign circumstances such as an increased number of elderly (Docker).
It would be preferred for every person to be able to give consent before euthanasia is administered, but sometimes this is not the case. Some patients, such as infants with fatal and painful birth defects, or vegetative, brain injury patients without a living will, are unable to voice their wishes. For these patients two things must happen. First, the physician must exhaust any lifesaving procedures available, or determine that such procedures are useless before considering euthanasia. Next, the physician must be able to achieve consensus from an established legal framework to determine if euthanasia is permissible. Those against euthanasia continually quote the Hippocratic Oath, "I will neither prescribe nor administer a lethal dose of medicine to any patient even if asked nor

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