A Crime of Compassion

Huttmann's decision that certain patients should have the right to die, as in the case of the cancer patient, Mac, the stand she took at the very precise moment of giving in to the request of Mac, was a very critical one. Mercy killing at its best or maybe the worst, depending on the perspective you have chosen concerning the case at hand. In “A Crime of Compassion,” Mac, presented his right to die, as he was undergoing extreme pain and suffering, to the nurse, Barbara Huttmann, who could have a hand in giving in to Mac's request and in this case which she eventually did. Terminally ill patients can have both rights – to live or to die or is it so? Is euthanasia really a right? What if he or she may be incompetent to decide on their own? Can family, relatives or friends decide for them? Can medical practitioners directly involved on one such case chose the fate of their patients? Can judicial process do it? Is euthanasia morally right? Can the means justify the end?

Euthanasia may also be considered as assisted suicide. It is accomplished by a third party, like a physician who aids a terminally suffering person end his life less painfully, an example of which is by using lethal injection or it is accomplished by the person, who is most instances are the terminally ill patients themselves, who by design may effect euthanasia by using such thing as a push button to effect the end of life. Such is a case of assisted suicide.

The state of Oregon permits euthanasia as an assisted suicide. Countries like Belgium and the Netherlands allows euthanasia where it is effected through a third party and also one where it becomes an assisted suicide effected by the concerned terminally ill person.

In support for euthanasia, people who favor such action points out compassion for people suffering unbearably from illnesses, referring to people affected by Cancer, also of AIDS sufferers or with Alzheimer's disease. They reasoned that why should people who are terminally ill suffer needlessly when the end result is still death. If their prolonged suffering will in anyway, result in death, they should at least be given a minimally painful process to end it. Another case cited, is one involving children in a similar situation. Parents would rather