Should Euthanasia be legalized in Canada? (FOR)

Essay by elusive_butterflyHigh School, 10th gradeA+, March 2007

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Euthanasia should be legalized. No one should have to experience their body disintegrate if they do not want to. Euthanasia is controversial because suicide is involved, but little do we realize that there are some things we do everyday that help us commit slow suicide. Euthanasia is also extremely beneficial to the health-care system. As free individuals, having so many rights, why shouldn’t we have the right to determine when to terminate our lives? Firstly, euthanasia should be legalized because patients who are terminally ill will die anyway; they should not be forced to experience their bodies disintegrate. In the state of Oregon, the only place in North America that has legalized euthanasia, a report revealed that among terminally ill people, one of the most common reasons for wanting to die early was the “decreased ability to participate in activities that made life enjoyable” and the “eventual loss of autonomy.”

Also, Marilyn Savant, who is in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the highest IQ at 230, has a question and answer column in Parade magazine. A reader asked her if she found an immortality pill whether she would take it and Savant wisely answered stating that no, she “might have to endure eternity in an undesirable state of health.” Terminally ill people are suffering, they are in pain and they simply want to end it. They do not want to see themselves be left with no motility and in a vegetative state. Who are we to prevent them from advancing to a better place than the miserable state they are in right now? That is one reason why euthanasia should be legalized; we should not be forced to experience the degeneration of our own bodies.

Secondly, euthanasia is a hot topic because it involves suicide, but...