Euthansia Essay, Research Paper

Euthanasia

A very difficult problem facing our society today is euthanasia, another word for nerdy killing. Thousands of young people are in comas because of accidents, and old people are terminally ill because of incurable diseases. They are all kept alive in artificial ways. They have no chance to recover completely, but the American legal system does not allow doctors to end their lives. However, terminally ill patients should be allowed to have the right to die.

The first and most important reason is that is that the patients have no chance of recovery. They can never lead normal lives and must be kept alive daily by live support machines. They may need a machine to breathe and a feeding machine to take food in. They are more dead then alive really if you look at it. For example, in 1975, Karen Quilan became unconscious after she swallowed some drugs and drank some alcohol; she was kept alive by machines. Her parents knew that her body and brain would never be normal again. Therefore, they asked the court to allow their daughter to die. The judge agreed to their request and their daughter s machine was turned off. She was able to breathe on her own, but she died nine years later in June of 1985.

The second reason is that medical costs are too high. The cost of a hospital room can cost as much as five hundred dollars per day and even more. The cost of medicine and medical test is also very high. The family is responsible for all of these expenses. Consequently they will be a terrible financial burden on them for a long time. So I think the family should have to make that decision or if they patient has made a request before hand then that can work also. But the doctors shouldn t be allowed to make that decision.

The third and finally reason is that the family suffers. The family should have the right to feel, touch, and comfort there loved ones. For example Karen Quilan s parents visited her everyday even though they were aware that she could not comprehend anything they were probably talking to her about as well as see them. The point is that I don t think anybody would want to watch his or her loved ones sit there and die. Because I know if I was in the situation I wouldn t want to see one of my family s sit there and die, and I am sure they wouldn t be comfortable seeing me in that situation either.

In conclusion, I think I would want my family to just unplug my machine if I was in that situation. Because I would be suffering from medicine and all that other stuff anyway. I would rather just die then to suffer from taking all kinds of medicines. Hopefully my family would look at it from my perspective if that situation ever happens. There are certain things in this essay I personally do not agree with, and were just reference notes. Such as the patients have no chance whatsoever of recovery. Because I believe with God anything and everything is possible.