Euthanasia Essay Research Paper Lisa a 43yearold

Euthanasia Essay, Research Paper

Lisa, a 43-year-old woman was diagnosed with lung cancer, terminal disease. For the past 2 years Lisa has been receiving chemotherapy and taking numerous types of medication trying to prolong her life. This life prolonging treatment caught up with her. Everyday now Lisa has to battle just to get out of bed, everyday getting worse and worse. The doctors now tell Lisa she has six to eight months to live, and she has to receive 6 hours of therapy everyday. Lisa then breaks down in tears. She decides she doesn’t want to go through anymore pain or suffering. Now knowing it is only a matter of time before she dies, she wants to end her suffering by taking her own life. Lisa can not do it by herself; she needs someone to assist her. But how can someone assist a terminally ill person in taking their life and not risk going to jail for it? This brings up the controversial and moral debate of legalization of P.A.D. (Physician Assisted Death) and the act of euthanasia in America. Should people who are terminally ill, go through pain and suffering, or should they have a choice? Why doesn’t this women have the right to choose the way she lives or dies?

There is a difference between P.A.D. and euthanasia. P.A.D. involves a second party, actually a doctor, who gives the patient drugs and instructs the person planning to take his or her own life. With euthanasia, it is a doctor who administers the lethal drug dose. Since it is identical to homicide, active euthanasia is illegal in every state. But how do prosecutors define the difference between ending a person’s life with his or her permission, and helping a person commit suicide? If a doctor, at a patient’s request, gives the person a lethal injection, he or she may be charged with murder. However, if a doctor simply places the lethal injection by the patient’s side, and the patient injects himself or herself, the doctors would be charged with assisted suicide. “In the Netherlands, because primary care doctors have long-term relationships with their patients, helping them die takes a heavy emotional toll (Neumann 5).” Although few doctors who perform it have been brought to trial and none have been convicted and imprisoned. Most doctors hesitate to practice assisted suicide on legal grounds. Doctors are trained to preserve life; most doctors are troubled by the thought of helping patients end their lives. This issue receives considerable attention in medical publications.

There have been a number of people supporting the legalization of euthanasia. Doctors have been trying to help terminally ill patients who no longer wish to live (Emanuel 2). For a while now, polls show that majority of Americans support euthanasia. There is what people call A “rule of thirds”, but the rule of thirds is not enough for there to be any changes. We need more support for there to be any effect. It has been like this for over 25 years, there has to be a change (Emanuel 2). But still, if majority of Americans support P.A.D. and euthanasia, than why is it still today illegal? How deep do we have to go for the legislatures to open their eyes? A PARADE survey verifies that the public does not want to see its terminally ill citizens dying in pain anymore, they want people do die in peace, and not watch them suffer for no reason (Ubell 2). Questionnaires were mailed to 3750 people aged 21 or older. They answered questions concerning the right to choose death. In a more recent poll, it shows that 79 percent of the people agree with P.A.D; 12 percent oppose, and the other 9 percent said they neither agree nor disagree or put no answer (2). This is one of many polls taken in the U.S. and like in this PARADE poll, most people agree with the legalization of euthanasia. How much longer are people going to wait to get what they want? Everybody has the right to choose the way they live or die.

If you were walking threw the woods one-day and you came across a wounded deer, or any animal for that matter. And you know sooner or later that animal is going to die. What do most people do in this matter? Most people usually pull out their gun and kill the animal where it lays. And why do people do this? They do this because they know if they kill the animal right then and there, it will ease the poor animal of all its pain and suffering. And the animal will die a quick and easy death instead of going through all that torture. So why is it that people think differently when it comes to us humans? Is killing a human and ending their pain and suffering different from killing the animal? It is similar in many ways. The person killing the animal knows it is going to die, and knows it is in excruciating pain. So he relieves the animal by taking its life. Now, a person knows its he or she is going to die. So instead of putting up with all their suffering, he or she asks a professional or a close family member to assist in ending their pain and suffering. And they die with respect and dignity. That is the way I want my life to end, what do u think? Everybody has the right to choose the way they live or die!

Most people who oppose euthanasia believe only God can give and take away life, that life is sacred and no one has the right to purposively take away life. Many religious people follow this principle, so they do not agree with suicide and assisting dying.

However, Lord Soper, a member or the House of Lords, is an