Celeny Cruz
Professor Connell
English 1005
1 May 2014
Against Euthanasia

As she lies there, holding back her tears, the doctor says, “ There’s nothing we can do, I’m sorry.” But is there really nothing he can do? Ever since euthanasia was introduced, it seems as though doctors have stopped trying there best to save their patients. Even though people don’t want to live the pain, euthanasia should be illegal. Euthanasia was first approved for people who are terminally ill and ask for it. Then they stretched it to people who can’t be cured or who have really bad disabilities. They then started to euthanize people who were depressed and wanted to die. “It is hard to be certain a patient was really dying in many cases. Many doctors have had patients who they thought were hopeless for recovery.” Doctors are starting to use euthanasia as an excuse. Some people have been euthanized although they had the chance to get better. It’s not fair to the patient and it’s definitely not fair to the patient’s family. I mean, if you’re not sure if someone can get better, why kill him or her? Doctors have stopped trying to save some of their patients. “If a physician withholds maximum efforts from patients he considers hopelessly ill, he will unavoidably withhold maximum effort from the occasional patient who could have been saved.” In other words, if a physician doesn’t give their all to save a patient who is hopelessly ill, then they’re not giving their all to save that one in a million patient who could’ve made it. And if you ask me, that’s pretty sick. They should be doing all they can to save all their patients, not giving up before they even try. The only state in the U.S. that allows euthanasia is Oregon. They call it “The Oregon Death,” and the law allows doctors to prescribe lethal medications to patients who have terminal illnesses and have been given 6 months to live. There are people who beat the odds and live longer than expected. Plus, if someone is given 6 months to live, shouldn’t they live those months to the fullest? Jonathan H. Pincus wrote a letter saying, “Many patients who could’ve been allowed to die are alive and doing well because of some new advance in therapeutics which occurred during the course of their illness.” It just takes some time. What if they euthanize someone who has been given 6 months to live and about 2 months later they find a cure to their illness? It’s simply not fair. In the first 9 years that “The Oregon Death” law was passed, 456 patients got lethal prescriptions. 292 of the 456 patients killed themselves with the medicine. That’s more than half! Those 292 patients equaled 15% of all deaths in Oregon. It just amazes me how a state can allow doctors to kill 15% of their population. Although the doctors only gave the patient the prescription and the patient did the rest, it is still the doctor’s fault because they shouldn’t have the patient the prescription. In the Netherlands, they allow doctors to prescribe medication for suicide. Their law is nothing like Oregon’s, they do not require a terminal illness, they only require “intolerable suffering” meaning unbearable pain. It’s unbelievable. Usually when someone is in pain they’re given some sort of anesthesia to numb the pain but no, the Netherlands just kills them. 1.7% of the Netherlands annual deaths are by euthanasia asked for by the patients, 0.1% is by euthanasia for the right reason and 0.4% are of patients who do not request euthanasia but are suffering intolerable pain so they’re killed.