A Good Death Death is final. Some die naturally in a peaceful manner while others suffer through tremendous pain in order to get there. Euthanasia is the only way for some people to leave all their pain behind. Euthanasia is the act of killing another person in a merciful way. Of course, euthanasia has many more meaning to it than that. A person that is suffering from a terminal illness decides that life is not worth living because there is too much pain involved and ends his own life, would that be wrong of him? That is the question that is at hand.
Many supporters of the “right to die movement” can justify euthanasia. First, because terminal illness is causing pain that is unbearable for that individual. That is the main reason why people seek self-induced death. Second, the thought of a restricted life and depending on others, even for the simplest task, does not appeal to them. Aristotle wrote, “happiness is the exercise of vital powers along lines of excellence in a life affording them scope.” These people will never find happiness because they cannot live their lives out to the fullest extent that was given to them.
Nancy was only four years old when her grandmother died. Her grandmother had a big lump on the lower right hand side of her back. The doctors removed it, but it was too late. The tumor had already spread throughout her body. Instead of having a lump on her back, she had a long stitched up incision there. She couldn’t move around; Nancy’s parents had to help her go to the bathroom and do all the simple things that she use to do all by herself.
Nancy would ask her grandmother to get up to take her younger sister, Linh, and herself outside so they could play. She never got up. A couple of months later, an ambulance came by their house and took their grandmother away. That was the last time Nancy ever saw her alive. She was in the hospital for about a week and a half.
Nancy’s parents never took them to see her. One day, Nancy saw her parents crying and she have never seen them cry before. They dropped Linh and her off at one of their friend’s house. Nancy got mad because she thought they were going shopping and didn’t take her with them. Now, she realizes that they went to make funeral arrangements for her grandmother.
The next day, they dressed up and all went to see their grandmother. They didn’t tell her that she had passed away. That was when Nancy realized that she would never be coming home again. She never got the chance to say good bye to her.
When Nancy was nineteen years old, she asked her dad why he never took her to see her grandmother at the hospital. He told her that grandmother was deteriorating and didn’t want us to see her looking like that. She had too much pride to let us see her in her frail state. Knowing how she was, she would have wanted to be euthanized because she was in so much pain. The doctors didn’t listen to her and she suffered to the very end. Death was the only thing that brought her peace.
A person that is living with a incurable disease that will eventually kill them in the end is living with a pain that is too much for anyone to handle, has the right to end it. Especially, if death was certainly not far away. Before they decide to make that decision, the doctors must let them know the facts and not give them a false sense of hope, so the patient can make an educated decision. Doctors are there to help the patient and that means in assisting them in suicide. That is known as active euthanasia. That is when the doctors are taking part in actually “killing” the patient.
In a funny way, it shows that the doctor actually care about the patient’s interest. Then there is passive euthanasia. Euthanasia is a physical act to end a life. Passive would be letting the person die naturally.
Letting someone die is, sometimes, a long and painful process. If a cancer patient decides that he doesn’t want to take chemotherapy because of all the side affects and dies because of that decision, it still wouldn’t be euthanasia. There is nothing wrong with that if that is what the ill person wanted, but it is not euthanasia. Keeping a person alive that does not want to live is wrong because it is disrespecting his life and any dignity that he has left. In these situations, one chooses to live the rest of his life out with dignity while the other wants to die with dignity. In the essay, “The Wrongfulness of Euthanasia,” by J.
Gay-Williams, he stated,” Euthanasia does violence to this natural goal of survival. It is literally acting against nature because all the processes of nature are bent towards the end of bodily survival. Euthanasia defeats these subtle mechanisms in a way that, in particular case, disease and injury might not.” (Saris, 281. ) He is stating that people should let nature take its course. Euthanasia would alter the from doing its functions. He believes that the human body can do everything that needs to done, but in reality there is only so much the human body can do.
When the natural goal of survival fails then death is certainly going to be the final resort. If that is the case, then all euthanasia is doing is ending life earlier and maybe with less pain. A patient that has AIDS know that he is going to die and he has a choice between living it out or ending it, should he be able to just end it when the outcome for both is death? According to Williams, the answer should be no. Choosing to end one’s own life is going against the human nature to survive. There are numerous diseases out there that are still killing people, but with new drug treatments people are expected to live longer.
If scientist had the same mind set as Williams, the world would be plagued with diseases and everybody would be dying or dead. Medicine goes against the nature, so should people just ignore it and hope that their body functions will save them? Then again, not all the medicine out there are safe. In fact, sometimes in order to rid the disease an individual might have to take several kinds of drugs that have major side affects. “Our dignity comes from seeking our ends.” When he used the word “seeking,” he seems to imply that people go out to look for death. So, if an individual decides to seek out their end by euthanasia it would be within reason because that is where our dignity is at.
Williams made one good point that humans are the only living species that “are conscious through reason of our nature and our ends.” (281). Euthanasia does ignore the fact that these two natures exist. As Richard Brandt states in his “A Moral Principle About Killing,” life is not forever and circumstances do arise that people must think about “advancing the date of its death, or as shortening its life.” (285). Euthanasia is not murder.
The difference between murder and euthanasia is that when one murders another person, it is for a selfish reason. The murderer does not give the victim the chance to choose because he is the one who decides whether or not the victim should live or die. No one has the right to decide who should die and who should live. In euthanasia, the choice is given to the victim (the ill person), whether or not they want to live. It is done out love and compassion by people, who love them and know them. It is not an easy decision to help end a love one’s life, but it is also unfair to make them suffer.
In certain circumstances, like a brain dead person is being kept alive by machines, should the doctor be allowed to make the decision for the victim? No, he should not. Even family members of the victim don’t have the right to make that decision, unless the victim told them specifically. This discussion would have to be done in front of a lawyer. Keeping a brain dead person on a machine that keeps them breathing is not living. They are alive, but they are not living.
That is not the kind of life that he or she would have wanted. People have to take into consideration the quality of the patient’s life while being hooked up to the machine after some time. Euthanasia supporters love life, but they if they know that they are going to die they are going to be in control of it. Dying with dignity is something that means a great deal to terminally ill people. Some want to die while they still look presentable, so other people would remember how they looked when they were still alive. Then there are the ones that fight the their illness until they can fight no more.
These are not decisions that someone could make for another person. They are the only ones that can make those kinds of decisions. If one chooses to end it early, other people should not condemn them. There are no right or wrong deaths in these situations. The outcome is the same for both, death. Death is final..