The Pros and Cons of Euthanasia

1076 Words3 Pages

Euthanasia, good or bad? In this following article I will be exploring euthanasia in more detail, the different Christian points of view, the strengths and weaknesses of the euthanasia argument and finally my point of view on euthanasia and why I believe this. First of all, what is euthanasia? It is something that not many people think about until they or a friend or family member is put in a position where they might actually have to consider it. Euthanasia, in the dictionary, simply is: the action of ending someone’s life in a painless way. It seems pretty simple but in reality it is a lot more complicated, not only for the people involved but for the society in general as well. Overall there are four different types of euthanasia. There is passive euthanasia, where the dying person is given strong painkilling drugs but given not medical care and therefore is left to die-hopefully without pain. Then there is compulsory euthanasia, and although it is rarely performed today, it is where a person with a certain disease, such as the plague, is killed to relieve them of their pains and also to stop the disease spreading further. Next is involuntary euthanasia where, for example, a person in a coma or a person who is brain dead is given euthanasia because they have no quality of life or that their life has no value. It is called involuntary euthanasia as a family member can request that euthanasia is performed because the ill person cannot. The last type of euthanasia, and the most difficult to understand and to regulate, is voluntary euthanasia-where a person, say with a terminal illness or who is very old, asks for euthanasia to be performed to end their life earlier so that they will not be in so much pain. Because eut... ... middle of paper ... ...e so it shouldn’t be ended with hast. However, although I am against euthanasia in most cases-I do not believe that it should not banned completely and some forms should still exist. For example, although it sounds like the harshest and the easiest form of euthanasia for somebody to take advantage of, I believe that involuntary euthanasia is right for some extreme cases. I believe this because for some families, maybe with somebody in a coma-who is unlikely to ever wake up, their only chance to live a normal and happy live is to end the life of the person in the coma. Although there is a small chance that the person will wake up-and many people believe that this is a reason why involuntary euthanasia is wrong-there is a bigger chance that they will never and if they don’t, you could say that many lives are wasted because the family are always living in limbo.

Open Document