OT: Euthanasia

[rbgnwa45]

I'm doing an essay on this for law. What is your view of it?

Definition:
The act of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy.

I think, if someone wants to die because of pain or terminal illness, the decision should be up to the person. I believe that doctors should use lethal injections, and that total consent of the patient is needed. Put yourself in someone elses' shoes. If you had your whole life ahead of you, but something terrible happens and you are either in a wheelchair, hospitalized so long it can be called home, or bed-ridden for the rest of your life, unable to move anything below your neck. You can imagine the rest. I would probably spend the time I had with loved ones, and eventually become depressed to the point where life has no meaning to me. How can it? When all you have control over is your head. Religion shouldn't even be considered a factor. Just because it tries to explain where we go when we die, doesn't make it a good reason to decide weather or not someone should have the right to die. They look at it as 'mercy killings'. Would you shoot a deer if you ran it over and it was injured? Sure you would. It's "humane". I'm sure the deer wouldn't want to sit there for however long watching other deers jump fences etc. Maybe one day it will be humane for humans to kill humans. If you can't handle the subject, grow some thicker skin, because you may one day have to face it. A major factor I have left out is what if the person doesn't understand to consent or isn't even conscious? Who decides to pull the plug?

It is very unfortunate for those who have questioned euthanasia for themselves, and after writing this I felt a great sence of appreciation for being able to live so ungratefully, and sorrow for those who are forced to.

Death is certain, life is not.

[Pappy]

Its not a written law...but doctors kill patients all the time. When I made the decision that i wanted no further life support for my father, they hit him with a big old dose of morphine and he died within 60 seconds of the shot. He would have prefered that over spending the next few days in hopeless agony, infact i had promised him i would never let him be in that state, and if the doctors had refused i would have shot him in the head. I know that doesnt sound right, but he did not raise us to let things suffer and I would hope he would have done the same for me.

[Bullitt]

I myself have no problem with it. There is saying that I keep getting stuck in my head: You can't strengthen the weak by weakening the stong. And although it may sound crude I know for myself I would not be doing any one any favors by being "Preserved" if i was In hopeless agony or had some terrible illness. The only thing you are acheiving is spending money on health care that could be better used for someone else who can really benefit from it.