Right To Die

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorCollege, Undergraduate January 2002

download word file, 3 pages 0.0

Downloaded 41 times

The Right to Die Imagine being diagnosed with a terminal illness. Without medical treatment available, no hope for a cures, inevitably the suffering is unbearable for all parties involved. When the illness takes over a person's body, destroying all his functions, life ends. He has nothing to look forward to, except a slow and painful death. So to end the suffering, it should be his choice for a gentle and certain death with dignity. This process is referred to as active euthanasia. The act is intentional killing of a person, for compassionate motives, whether the killing is by a direct action, or by failing to perform an action necessary to maintain life. (finalexit.org/dhumphry). I believe that active euthanasia should be legal and the choice of the dying. Although passive euthanasia is legal, the diagnosed patient does not make the choice. It is the decision made by a loved one or doctor, who feels the sick patient would be better off dead.

In this case lethal injections are not used, but ignoring necessary treatment, such as not giving medication needed to live, used as the method of performing euthanasia.

People have different views about active euthanasia because, for one, assisting in a suicide is a felony. It is against the law everywhere in the United States to assist a suicide "" no matter what the reason. About half of the states in the United States have laws that specifically prohibit assisted suicide. (Final Exit). The state could also bring charges such as manslaughter or murder. Only one country permits a doctor to help a terminally ill patient die by request and that is the Netherlands. (Final Exit).

Dr. Jack Kevorkian has become well known for assisting in suicides for the terminally ill. Since his first assistance of suicide in 1990 to...