Argumentative Essay On End Of Life

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Death frightens us. Therefore, acknowledging one’s wish to willingly end his or her life is difficult for the average person to understand. Though we are aware that our days are finite, we live with the false hope that technology may advance by the time we reach the end of our lives to substantially extend them. We live with the delusion of an eternal existence. However, not everyone cringes upon the thought of death. Many elderly people, near death, choose to commit suicide, willingly take one’s own lives, because it is simply accelerating the inevitable. Suicide has a poor social stigma, but it is not always an attempt to “take the easy way out” as many people regard it. It can simply be the decision to end life on a high note. We can simultaneously …show more content…

Regardless, it is commendable that they are able to come to terms with something that scares us so deeply. In “The Good Short Life” Dudley Clendinen, who suffers from Lou Gehrig’s disease, states “That is the weird blessing of Lou. There is no escape, and nothing much to do. It’s liberating” (Clendinen). The controversy behind end of life practices is that they are an anomalous notion for those who are young and healthy to grasp. For those who are never satisfied with life constantly in search of better experiences, opportunities, and relationships, deciding to willingly relinquish their grasp of life is senseless. However, for those who have lived a long life or for those suffering from a disease that has no significant treatment or cure there is an imminent promise of death. If death is promised, and at an accelerated rate, it is best to enjoy life to the fullest and welcome it as “one of life’s greatest, most absorbing thrills and challenges” (Clendinen). Rather than living longer through continuously deteriorating health and life quality in an attempt to hold on to a few poor months or years of life Clendinen chooses to respectfully bow out, as many elderly people do; enjoying “the good short

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