EuthanasiaThe Right To Die Essay Research Paper

Euthanasia.The Right To Die Essay, Research Paper

Euthanasia…The Right To Die With Dignity

Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide is a very sensitive issue debated in this country today. Euthanasia is the act of painlessly ending the life of a person for the reason of mercy. It is sometimes referred to as mercy killing. Americans are hearing more and more horror stories of the elderly tragically killing his or her spouse in order to avoid painful and horrible deaths. It is sad and amazing the extreme measures one has to go through to accomplish his or her death. More and more Americans are speaking out and fighting for the right to die. This however goes against all morals and ethical codes, for a physician’s role is to sustain life, not take it away. Although euthanasia and assisted suicide is not morally and ethically accepted, it should be an individual issue for those who face imminent death because death should be a personal choice, because death should be without unnecessary pain and suffering, and because most importantly death should be peaceful.

Granted, euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide seem to threaten the traditional medical values. All physicians take the Hippocratic Oath upon receiving their degree. This oath states those physicians are to prolong life and minimize suffering. In an article written by John Glasson he argues:

Physician-assisted suicide presents one of the greatest contemporary

challenges to the medical profession’s ethical responsibilities. Proposed as a

means toward more humane care of the dying, assisted suicide threatens

the very core of the medical profession’s ethical integrity. (91)

Physicians have a moral and ethical responsibility to sustain life. They are in no

position to render aid in a person’s death. Groups argue that euthanasia and

physician-assisted suicide goes against everything they believe in. Although physicians lose patients to death everyday, it is not due to the fact that they aided in their death, but could no longer do anything to sustain life. Physicians have a moral obligation to uphold the Hippocratic Oath.

Although the above argument seems valid, however, in this case people have the right to make personal choices. Death should also be a personal choice to those who are terminally ill or debilitated with a degenerative disease that leaves them unable to care for themselves, and therefore having to depend totally on others to sustain their life. Our society makes it very difficult for those who want to end their life due to intolerable pain and suffering. The way in which a person chooses to die is a very personal issue. In his article an expert argues that ‘“ We feel people should make up their own minds and know all the options,”’ said Rev. Michael Bonacce, executive director for CID of Washington. ‘“We feel we were given free will and so we have to make the decision”’(qutd in Strasburg). In other words, we are given a free will and people should be able to make up their own minds. People should be educated and informed regarding the options available to them. Regardless of what options a person chooses, he or she should have the right to decide what is best for him or her. Arguments for the right to die are being heard in courtrooms all over

this country. People are speaking out for their personal rights. The following quote is an argument heard in the Supreme Court at a trial in 1998:

Fourteenth Amendment Due Process protects one’s right to make intimate

and personal choices, such as those relating to marriage, procreation, child

rearing—and the time and manner of one’s death. As the Ninth Circuit

observed , quoting from Planned Parenthood v. Casey: ‘Like the decision

[whether] to have an abortion, the decision how and when to die is one of

‘the most intimate and personal choices a person may make in a lifetime,’

a choice ‘central to personal dignity and autonomy.’(48)

People have constitutional rights regarding other personal issues in their life, why should the death be treated with less respect. The attorney is arguing that if a person can choose to have an abortion, he or she may also have the personal choice of how and when to die. He is stating that this choice is central to a person’s dignity and independence. Laws in this country have changed over the years and will continue to change for many years to come. Activist for euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide will continue to fight for the freedom of choice. Hopefully people will begin to see the need for human compassion when it comes to the needs of the dying.

The most difficult aspect of death is watching a loved one die due to unnecessary pain and suffering. Our hospital’s intensive care units and nursing homes are filled with people dying and experiencing meaningless torment. When death is the only way to relieve suffering, why not allow it to come in the most humane way possible. There are organizations such as Hospice that have been very successful in helping people to die at home. Hospice provides the family and the patient with loving support and educates the family on the dying process. They also provide pain management and try to make the patient as comfortable as possible, however this is not enough. People still die with unnecessary pain and su

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