Euthanasia

Euthanasia

Euthanasia, as defined by the Encarta Encyclopedia, is the “practice of mercifully ending a person’s life in order to release the person from incurable disease, intolerable suffering, or undignified death” (Encarta, 2004). Euthanasia is a Greek word, which means “good death.” As humans, we understand death is something we cannot avoid but having some control over death is empowering and reassuring to us. If someone is suffering from a terminal illness, intolerable pain, or in a long-term coma, euthanasia is an acceptable option for someone to end his or her life. With the consent of their doctor(s) these people should be able to have the law on their side supporting their decisions.

Euthanasia began in 1906 when Ohio drafted the first bill supporting the acceptance of euthanasia. Unfortunately, the bill did not succeed. About thirty years later, Reverend Charles Potter founded the Euthanasia Society of America in New York (Humphry, 1999). Since its beginnings, euthanasia or mercy killing as it is also called, has experienced many highs and lows, legal wins and set backs. Most noteworthy is the 1976 Natural Death Act passed by California with 10 states quickly following in California’s footsteps (Humphry, 1999). In 1980, euthanasia made a small gain against its largest opposition, the Catholic Church (Humphry, 1999). Pope John Paul II refuses accepting any “right to die” ideologies although he permits greater use of painkillers and the right to refuse any means to extend life unnaturally.

Today, most states have some laws that allow patients to make informed decisions about how they wish to die. Almost every state allows one to have a living will. This simply states that if one is surviving via ...

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...e that is breathing for them, or allowing someone to be in coma with no brain waves and simply existing is counterproductive to technology. We need to have a human say in when technology is simply enabling us to exist as machines. In those times, we need the right to say it is time to die.

Euthanasia is at best a complicated subject. However, we a free people in a free society should be permitted one of the biggest freedoms of human life- deciding when to die. Doctors like Dr. Kevorkian should be hailed as heroes for human life not labeled doctors of death. Although this decision should never be made quickly or without counseling and much thought; if someone is terminally ill and in much pain he or she should be able to decide when her or she will die. It should be our last right as a person of this world to decide when it is time to move into the next one.