J. Gay-Williams: The Wrongfulness of Euthanasia.

Essay by ante14221 June 2003

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William Gay's feeling about euthanasia is that the idea of Euthanasia is not the practice a lot but it is slowly gaining acceptance within our society. According to Cynics there is an increasing tendency to devalue human life, but William Gay don't believe this is the major factor. The acceptance of Euthanasia is much more likely to be the result of unthinking gentleness and showing kindness. He wants to show that euthanasia is wrong and it is inherently wrong, but it is also wrong judged from the standpoints of self-interest and of practical effects. He defines Euthanasia as, "an essential aspect of euthanasia is that it involves taking a human life, either one's own or that of another. Also, the person whose life is taken must be someone who is believed to be suffering from some disease or injury from which recovery cannot reasonably be expected. Finally, the action must be deliberate and intentional."

Thus, euthanasia is intentionally taking the life of a presumably hopeless person. Whether the life is one's own or that of another, the taking of it is still euthanasia.

His first argument is about the arguments from nature. He tells about the natural reasons why should a person not commit Euthanasia. Euthanasia is literally acting against nature because all the processes of nature are bent towards the end of bodily survival. Euthanasia defeats these subtle mechanisms in a way that, in a particular case, disease and injury might not. It is enough to believe and to recognize that the organization of the human body and our patterns of behavioral responses make the continuation of life a natural goal. By this reason alone, Williams argues the purpose of Euthanasia. Euthanasia sets us against the nature. Furthermore, in doing so, euthanasia does violence to...