Euthanasia 2 Essay, Research Paper

EUTHANASIA An eighty-seven year old grandmother on a respirator, a newborn child with AIDS, and a father in a coma; all put to death by respectable doctors with the O.K. of their families. But is it really |O.K.X? Euthanasia, or doctor-assisted suicide, has become as common as jumping off of a fifteen story building or taking a gun to one+s own head. Certainly society frowns upon suicide, but yet putting an old lady or a man in a coma to death is being accepted every day. Society knows that suicide is bad, but euthanasia is even worse. The guilt and blame of a lost life is falling on the hands of doctor+s that we are supposed to trust, and even worse, the family members themselves. A doctor is to be known as a healer, not an agent of death. A family is supposed to love and support, not kill and inherit. Every person makes the light of the world brighter. The world needs everyone+s power and contribution. It+s the power and energy of the elderly, and the s! trength and will of the ill, that give the world life. The light has become very dim with the crime and corruption in today+s world, we can+t afford to throw lives away because some think they+re meaningless. If we continue to accept the merciless killings and suicides of the helpless but powerful, the light will soon burn out. There will be no energy in the world. Euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide should not be accepted or allowed by the government and people of the United States. Statistics show that seventy-three percent of the U.S. population approved of some form of euthanasia. This is used constantly in debates to pass laws for making euthanasia legal. But the people are deceived by this number. When the poll was taken, the people were asked if they approved of |some formX of euthanasia. There are two forms of euthanasia, active and passive. It is the passive euthanasia that many people are accepting, the less harsh of the two. That+s why people generally! say they approve of it. If a separate question was asked or the people were informed of the difference, we would find that only thirty-eight percent of the population approves of active suicide, as used by Kavorkian. So the fact that people approve of euthanasia is irrelevant because only thirty-eight percent would actually pass a law if they knew that Kavorkian+s methods would be allowed. However, it is said that passive euthanasia, suicide by the removal of life support, is a long-time practice for hospitalized patients. But does this make it O.K?I should think not. Many things have been accepted and practiced in the world, and many of them have become illegal. Not too long ago a teenager could drink whenever he wanted. Now we have laws to regulate the drinking age. This is the same type of thing, something terrible has going on for too long now. We need to put a stop to the killings with a law. Just because something has been allowed and occurring for a long t! ime doesn+t mean that it+s O.K. Also, there is the issue of living wills. A living will is a document that protects the right of choice in end of life matters for patients. And not everyone has a living will when they become ill even though they don+t want to live through the agony and pain. They just don+t think to make one or plan on being ill and incompetent. But with or without a living will, it+s just not right to end a life, even if it+s one+s own. Many think that they should be able to decide on their own, but what about their families. The family will spend the rest of their lives wondering in agony and pain about whether or not a cure would have been found or if the patient would have made it out of the coma. It wouldn+t be right to spread the pain by adding to the fire. But some say, |Why waste the money and extend the pain and agony by keeping someone on a machine?X We need to look at life in a more positive way. We need to weigh the matters evenl! y. What+s more important, the life of a family member or trying to save money and pain. Clearly it is the life, nothing is more important than that. Approximately one billion dollars is spent on life support patients annually. But the cost of keeping people alive is irrelevant if there is a chance that they may be cured or come out of a coma. More importantly, we need to look at the reasons why it+s used, not just what people think about it. Life and death is a huge issue, a person can+t afford to be pressured into a drastic decision about their life. Whether it+s unconscious or not, doctors, family friends may pressure a patient to choose death. We need to eliminate the option or we+ll always have the issue of whether or not the patient was pressured into suicide. That is certainly not right. It probably doesn+t make sense that family members would actually pressure a loved one into suicide, but money is the real issue. The doctors can make a lot of money and the f! amilies will save on medical bills while inheriting a lot of money and belongings. Think about the disabled, retarded, unassertive, poor, and even the elderly. All very vulnerable to an influential person. Yes, even little ol grandma. Americans aged eighty-five and older is the largest category faced with euthanasia. In 1950 there were over a half of a million Americans aged eighty-five and older and by 1990 that number grew to 3.1 million. With the medical technology we have and the progress we are making to improve today, the number of Americans older than eighty-five will be more than twice that of 1990 in the year 2005. We are spending millions of dollars for medical technology to save lives, we shouldn+t let live be thrown away when hard working citizens are paying taxes to help keep them alive. Also, the reasons that euthanasia is used may just be flat out wrong. Many times, a patient gives up their life because they feel like a burden to their family. ! If this is so, what has the world come to when the people that a patient has known, loved, and respected for so long, makes them feel like a burden. A person is supposed to be able to go to their family for support, that+s what a family is all about. Sticking together and getting through problems the right way, not ending one+s life. Many times a patient feels like a burden because of treatment costs. The cost of treatment is way too high for many patients to afford, so they go to their families. But rather than support and help, the patient gets resistance and feels as though they have become a burden. This causes them to want to turn to death, rather than trouble the one group of people that are supposed to be there for help in times of need. Furthermore, without passive euthanasia millions of lives can be saved. A law has to be made to stop these |mercy killingsX. There are thousands of people that are seriously hospitalized with a terminal disease or a co! ma. An estimated ten-thousand of these hospitalized patients die daily. Seventy percent of these deaths are a direct result of |secretlyX withdrawing life support. Yes, everyday a number of patients die from a family member paying a visit to them and |pulling the plugX while the doctor isn+t around. It+s bad enough that we have so many troubles with general homicides and suicides, but now it+s time to concern ourselves with the killings that are going on in hospitals. The institution that we go to for good health, security, and treatment is doing just the opposite and it needs to be stopped. If a law is passed that makes euthanasia illegal, then people will definitely think twice before helping someone end their life. There has to be price to pay for helping one commit suicide, it should not be taken lightly. By passing a law against euthanasia, thousand of lives will be saved. Next is the issue of active euthanasia, actively taking measures to help ! end the life of another. This is the type of euthanasia practiced by Doctor Jack Kavorkian and argued about all over the world. Many important issues surface when discussing active euthanasia. First, there is the argument that a person has the right to choose. Each individual should be able to make the decision of whether or not they want to live in pain or die with dignity. Otherwise people are just like robots that are controlled by laws, society and always have to do what others think is right. But is giving up a life and committing suicide really dignified? There is always the chance of coming out of a coma and finding a cure for a disease. Thousands of doctors are working to find cures for every terminal disease all over the world. When there+s the chance of being cured like there always is, there is no reason to commit suicide. No matter how anyone looks at it or says it, suicide is not dignified. Everyone has the right to choose, but it the choices are how t! o lead and live their life, not end it. And there is nothing robotic about following laws that are made to protect the people and the society they live in. Choices about how one+s life will end aren+t to be made by oneself, they can choose how to lead their life but there is no dignity gained by committing suicide. Secondly, just because something is considered to be sinful by the Bible or in any other religion, doesn+t mean it should be a crime. We live in a democracy where the people, of all religions, make the laws. They shouldn+t be based on any religion or religious book. But we+re not talking about the sin of suicide, where talking about euthanasia. Euthanasia is assisted suicide, but isn+t that just a nice name for homicide. Suicide is killing oneself, but how can you assist yourself. The assistant is another person who is guilty of conspiracy to commit murder. Laws are already passed against murder. When someone takes part in euthanasia they+re not going to! be on trial for attempted suicide because they weren+t trying to kill themselves, they were taking the life of another. It+s murder and there+s no other way to look at it. Next is the belief that active euthanasia should be tolerated in order to save agony and pain for both the family and patient. No one should have to go through so much agony over a long period of time. Many think that it+s torture not to help dying patients. Kavorkian accused opposing physicians of being |Nazi doctorsX who torture and experiment with the poor and unfortunate. However, what is the agony and pain? It is the agony and pain of death and it has to be faced either way, but it shouldn+t be because of a suicide. We should face the pain and agony with strength and determination. The patients need to be determined to hang on and fight for cures. It+s not torture to keep someone alive in hopes of a cure. And if a patient is that ill, then they aren+t really going through that much ph! ysical pain, it+s the mental and emotional states of patients that need to be secured. That+s the reason many turn to suicide, they are unhappy with their lives so they begin to decline mentally and emotionally. And as far as experimenting goes, no experimental drug or procedure is forced upon any patient, including the elderly and incompetent. And what do they have to lose anyway? Most don+t mind using experimental drugs because it just may be the cure they+re looking for. There is nothing |NaziX about testing drugs and cures in hopes of saving a life. There is no torture or direct result of death. So, in actuality there is no physical agony or pain saved in euthanasia because that+s not what the patients are going through. It just shortens the mental and physical pain that can be helped in other ways than death. Either way, suicide is no answer to pain.