The right to die
It is your 189th day in hospital; 4536 hours looking at the same lemon-coloured walls, the same 30 uneven ceiling tiles, the same blinking florescent light. You are barely able to move, talk or even look at your family. Every second of your life is spent in unimaginable pain and there is nothing you can to do to stop it. From now on, every single day for the rest of your life you will be waiting for the release of death to finally take the agony away. You can see the stress and financial burden on your family that your suffering is causing, and you wish there was a way to make it all stop.
Euthanasia is defined as the painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease or in an irreversible coma. And what you were imagining is unfortunately the harsh reality for many people. These people have lost the right to their choice; choice a basic human right in our society, well supposedly.
I think a large majority of you will agree with me that it is up to the individual to decide many important life choices so why can’t they have power over the most important one- their own life? With cases such as terminal cancer when the patient is in endless pain and doctors are fully aware, why we should ignore a more rational option like euthanasia. If a dog is hit by a car and there is no reasonable solution, a vet will put it down as it is in the best interest of the dog but when a human is in the same situation they are forced to endure a life time of misery, torment and despair. We like to consider ourselves the most intelligent race but how can we call ourselves this when we are knowingly putting thousands of our people through torture. This is immoral.
In Europe, Belgium are lowering their legal euthanasia age down to 12. Of course, there has been an outcry against to this brave decision, but this clearly reflects the fact that Belgium officials are willing to place greater faith in their citizen’s ability to make their own decisions. The main argument against this decision is “how are they allowing children to die just because they are disabled” But abortions are legal in the UK if the babies’ quality of life is impaired. 2,692 abortions were carried out in 2012 under the grounds that there was a risk that the child would be born handicapped, and both of these are taking a child’s life so how can one be justified and not the other? Why are we letting terminally ill children go through an anguish that no child should feel, being segregated from their friends and living a life that only brings them hurt. These patients have deemed their lives to be worthless yet you are letting them spend every day of their lives with this self-loathing and hatred building more and more, and you consider this to be ethical?
Medication and drugs for prolonging a terminally ill patient’s life can do more harm than good. You are giving them false hope that they are getting better and that everything will be okay when in fact you know they won’t be. You think you are doing it for the best, letting them see their family for longer or making sure they have done everything in life they wanted to, but really you are paying to see the pain they have been put through to go on for longer. If you are paralysed, you already know that you are a burden for your family, you are unable to
The Right to Die Whether or not to legalize physician-assisted suicide is a controversial issue debated today. Many people believe that “it is inhumane, cruel and even barbaric to make a suffering person, whose death is inevitable, live longer than he or she wishes” (McCuen 101). The state of Florida should pass an initiative allowing physician-assisted suicide, but for reasons much more logical and rational than it simply being inhumane. One major reason why this initiative should be passed in…
The Right To Die A couple of years ago my mom’s friend Patty was diagnosed with a deadly disease called multiple sclerosis which they had no treatment for and was slowly eating her insides away. She had always that she didn’t want to suffer to this horrible disease and wanted to be put out once it reached a certain point. The only problem is that in the state of Florida you aren’t allowed to have a physician aid you in giving medication to kill someone or also known as Euthanasia. So in order…
questioning whether she wants to continue on with her life. Does she have the right to die? Or is that morally wrong? Despite the emotional pull of stories like this, I believe evidence leads to the conclusion that we should not legalize euthanasia or physician assisted suicide. Instead, our society should embrace a life-giving health care system that includes compassionate care for the dying, and educating patients about the right to refuse troublesome medical care. Before delving into euthanasia or…
Garza 1 Valerie Garza Ms. E. Guevara English II T/Th 2nd 6 February, 2015 Right to Die About five years ago, my grandmother was diagnosed with Melanoma. She was given a year to live, and in that one year, it advanced aggressively. Her strength faded, the light in her eyes dimmed, and she was no longer the carefree, patient grandmother my siblings and I grew up with. Those last twelve months were spent in and out of the hospital and eventually hospice. She was in very noticeable pain,…
The Right to Die As American citizens, we are guaranteed certain indisputable rights, defined in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” Yet, thousands of terminally ill patients are being denied these essential democratic rights as they determine end of life care. Doctor assisted suicide is an…
The Medical Professionals Influence on the Right-to-Die Movement Michelle Rand (7805388) March 31st, 2015 Introduction As humans, we often question the amount of control that we have over our own lives; do we make all the decisions, or is our life in the hands of somebody else? The Right to Die Movement addresses this idea through the belief that individuals should ultimately control the time and circumstances of their own death. The movement fights for the opportunity of both…
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…
This paper will highlight the main arguments as to why physician-assisted or the act of being euthanasia should be a right granted to all people suffering from a terminal illness and do not wish to live with the pain they have any longer. The reasons physician-assisted suicide should be legal is because it gives a terminally ill patient the right to die as well as the option to die with dignity, it prevents health care officials from illegally ending patients lives without their consent, and by offering…
Today I will discuss the issue of euthanasia. An issue which has torn our country apart morally and socially. It has left the Australian community at a standstill on whether an individual has the right to choose when and how they should leave this world. In examining this issue, i will be looking at the various stakeholders that euthanasia influences, it is easy to see it is not only complex, but crucial to respond to as a first world society/country. The painless killing of a person suffering…
and an attack on humanity itself. Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS) and Euthanasia became highly controversial ethical issues in the United States, however, key events such as different interpretations of the 14th Amendment, an individual's right to life, right of privacy and the socio-political impact of possible legalization brought these issues into legal and political prominence during the 1960's to 1980's. One of the major turning points in the perception of Physician-Assisted suicide happened…
