“And George raised the gun and steadied it, and he brought the muzzle of it close to the back of Lennie’s head…He pulled the trigger…Lennie jarred, and then settled slowly forward to the sand, and he lay without quivering”(Steinbeck117). George kills Lennie after Lennie killed Curley’s wife by accident. Lennie was feeling her curly hair. He broke her neck. George wanted to spare Lennie pain and suffering. George didn’t want Lennie to hurt anyone else by accident. Lennie would have gotten tortured. This quote illustrates euthanasia. Some people believe that God put them on earth to live their lives from the day they’re born until the day they die; otherwise it would be a sin to end it early. While on the other side many people think a person should be able to die on their own terms and not let the disease take them. The topic of euthanasia is very controversial to modern day people.
Euthanasia is “the provision by a doctor, consciously and legally, to a patient who has completely requested it of the means for the patient to end his or her own life” (McCuen10). Most doctors in the business of euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide Have or “are able to use sure and painless drugs” (McCuen10). Euthanasia is an ongoing topic to decide whether people should have the right to die on their own terms. People who are terminally ill should be able to die when they choose to go. Dr. Jack Kevorkian was a doctor in the 1990’s who helped people commit suicide. Kevorkian “built a machine that, when a patient triggered it, injected a substance to make the person unconscious and then, a few minutes later, a second drug to stop the heart. He called his device a Mercitron” (Yount26). Janet Adkins was the first to die by Kevorkian’s machine. Kevorkian has made claims that he had helped over 150 people die by physician-assisted suicide during the 1990’s (Yount26). Dr. Kevorkian was a very influential person on the extremely sensitive subject of euthanasia. He was one of the first people Kevorkian’s idea of euthanasia was correct. People who are terminally ill should have the right-to-die. A person should have the power to go when they want and not by the disease.
A New Jersey nurse, Charles Cullen, “pleaded guilty to killing 29 patients” (GettlemanB1). Cullen killed most of the people during the night. A mother of a 21-year-old, Michael Strenko, said “Now instead of giving presents,” “I get to put flowers on his grave” (GettlemanB1). A Sheriff’s Officers cheek had a tear roll down it when Mary Strenko also stated “I will never have the opportunity to dance with him at his wedding” (GettlemanB1). Some people might have the feeling that it was pure murder. Just to have that sensation of ending someone else’s life. Although others might say that it was an act of killing out of mercy. People believe that maybe these people were suffering badly and should be spared all of their pain and suffering. This was clearly a murder case though. Unlike other doctors that have been in the practice of Euthanasia, Cullen killed these people without the victim’s consent.
The state of Vermont is trying to legalize Physician-Assisted Suicide. Many people in the state of Vermont want to pass certain laws to make this practice perfectly legal for patients who are terminally ill and have nothing else to live for. These people who are terminally ill only have pain in their future and it’s not worth it to live. Dr. Richard Austin stated “I’ve seen some of my friends here die rotten deaths” (Estrin&SchwartzA12). Doctors in the state of Oregon have been allowed for the past seven years to prescribe different kinds of suicide drugs for the terminally ill patients that