Euthanasia Speech

Speech

Imagine if a close relative of yours was dying of lung cancer. Each breath they took was agonizing. No medicine or drug could lessen their pain. Their life had become a torture. They ask you to end their torment. What would you do? If you helped to hasten their death, you would most likely go to prison for murder. What this relative has asked you to do is to commit Euthanasia. Webster’s Encyclopedia describes Euthanasia as the practice of hastening or causing the death of a person suffering from an incurable disease . Simply put, Euthanasia is mercy killing.

Euthanasia is one of the most controversial topics in modern society, and every human being has a different view on it according to their culture, their nation’s laws, and their own personal beliefs.

Many people believe that Euthanasia should never be legalized, while others in countries like the Netherlands and Belgium already had it legalized. There are arguments for and against its legalization. Many people draw conclusions about Euthanasia from just the facts that are pro-Euthanasia, or just from the facts that are against Euthanasia. Tonight, I will inform you about Euthanasia from both of these points of view, so that you can make an impartial decision yourselves.

The biggest flaw with legalizing Euthanasia is its margin for abuse. This abuse can be seen in the Netherlands. In 1990, 1030 Dutch patients were killed without their consent. More than 12% of these patients were mentally competent but were not consulted at all . These deaths were essentially murders, and since Euthanasia is legal in the Netherlands, these deaths went, and will go, unpunished. The abuse of the Dutch system also extends to lethal injections of disabled babies. Babies cannot give permission to take their own lives, yet 8% of all infant mortalities in Holland occur from Euthanasia . Because the Dutch legal system is very lenient on murder cases involving Euthanasia, nurses and doctors do not fear killing patients without their consent. The main reason why they would do so is that life support is extremely expensive , and by killing patients, expenses will go down, and hospital beds will be freed. Belgium is another place where Euthanasia has been made legal and its pro-Euthanasia health system is abused to the same extent as is the Dutch one. If Euthanasia was legalized in Canada, abuse would