Euthenasia Essay, Research Paper

Euthanasia Euthanasia has become an issue of increasing attention. Euthanasia should be legalized so, if we ever have a loved one that is suffering and death is certain, that we have the choice to ease their pain if they want. Those who are against euthanasia argue that the doctors must always be on the side of preserving life. Another reason is euthanasia will lead to the devaluation of life . Also they think it will force doctors and family members to judge the value of a patient’s life. On the oterhand those who are who in favor of euthanasia say that a person has the right to a death with dignity. Another reason is that a person should be allowed a natural death instead of a prolonged death with medical equipment. Euthanasia should be legalized because a person has the right to die with dignity. People should have the right to control their own deaths. Why should a patient be forced to live if they think their present condition of life is meaningless. Why should they continue to live when doctors can no longer do anything and the pain has become unbearable. In these circumstances the person should have the choice to continue to live or to die. If the person is not able to make this decision there should be three options: a living will, the family’s choice, and the doctor’s choice. If the patient has no family the doctor should be able to make the decision for the patient. I believe that the doctor should be allowed to decide if the patient has reached the point where things are only getting worse, and the patient is in considerable pain. The doctor should be an because an advisor because: he has medical knowlede, knows the present condition of the patient and the alternatives. It’s morally incorrect to force a patient to stay alive when death is freely elected.

Nobody has the right to control the choices of others. In cases like ,terminal illness, personal views should not decide what is the right thing for the patient to do. Patients should not have to go thorough a long period of pain and suffering if they do not wish to.” Death is often bettet than dyeing.” Another argument is that doctors are not always responsible to do everything they can to save somebody. “If a doctor’s duty is to ease the pain of his patients, then why should this exclude the possibility of letting them die?” If a patient has a terminal illness and is in great pain and the patient thinks they would rather die now than continue living the with the pain, the doctor should be allowed to help. I believe that a doctor should do what he can up to a point. “If a person is at the point where death is a blessing a doctor should not be forced to save a person if they go into cardiac arrest”. The opposition argues that euthanasia is unethical. “They preach that doctors too often play God on the operating tables and in the recovery rooms and doctors must always be on the side of life”. ”They say that ‘life is to be preserved and suffering was to be alleviated’ but in fact the American Medical Association said, ‘Physicians dedicate their lives to the alleviation of suffering, to the enhancement and prolongation of life, and the destinies of humanity’. They clearly state the alleviation of suffering before the enhancement and prolongation of life”. So if “the reduction of pain would mean letting the person pass on, why would that be unethical?” People have always fought for freedom. If euthanasia is made illegal it will take away man’s “freedom of choice, the freedom for a person to choose a death with dignity and free of pain and suffering for themselves and their families”. “A dying man needs to die, as a sleepy man needs to sleep, and there comes a time when it is wrong, as well as useless to resist”- Stewart Alsop