Euthanasia - the Right to Die

The Right To Die

Euthanasia is the illegal act of killing a person by the request and authorization of a person. People of religion believe that euthanasia will be an act of suicide, an act which is considered the ultimate sin in some religions. Doctors believe that people resort to euthanasia in a state of hysteria and that they do not know what is best for them. But do they? Imagine a person who was in a car accident. They have been on life support for the past six months and there are no signs of this person ever making any progress. Before they became comatose, that person requested to be killed if they ever came to be in a vegetable state, but they can’t because doctors believe that they were being irrational. Imagine a person diagnosed with HIV or AIDS. They know what kind of suffering and pain they are going to experience in the long run. They want to end their suffering before it begins. If legalized, I believe euthanasia will be the end of grieving and disputing families, the pain and depression endured by people who are hospitalized or diagnosed with a treacherous fate, and the belief that euthanasia is neither an irrational option nor a legally suicidal act.

When you think of a loved one in the hospital, you think about the families waiting to hear the seriousness of the situation. You think about the families who are grieved and fight over what they believe is right for their loved one. The legal systems declare that families are irrational and that they don’t give their loved ones time to heal or make progress, which make the act of euthanasia even harder to commit. In the case of Terri Schiavo, Terri suffered severe brain damage when her heart stopped for five minutes which resulted in her being in a vegetative state. For eight years, she was hospitalized, her brain never showing any activity. Her husband finally decided to take her off life support, however, her parents fought against his decision. After many years of battling Terri’s fate in court, she was taken off life support March 17, 2005, she died two weeks later. After her death, her autopsy showed that her brain had shrunk to a half normal size and that she had become blind. If legalized, I believe that euthanasia will limit the amount of feuding that family’s experience when it comes to deciding what it best for the one they love. It will also stop the legal system from taking it upon their selves to fight against your family’s decision when you’ve all to come to the conclusion that euthanasia is the only choice.

If legalized, euthanasia will end suffering and depression for those who know that a life of pain and suffering awaits them. A person who is diagnosed with cancer, AIDS, HIV, leukemia, knows that their time is going to come. They know that in the meantime, their life will be filled with pain. They know that life as they know it will never be the same. These people realize, as Richard Huntington and Peter Metcalf observed in Celebrations of Death, "life becomes transparent against the background of death" (1979:2). Knowing that you’re going to die makes life less appealing.