Euthanasia Pros and Cons Essay Example

📌Category: Health, Health Care
📌Words: 1343
📌Pages: 5
📌Published: 25 August 2020

I want you to imagine being in unbearable pain constantly, even when you know you will perish soon and eventually. You’re forced to stay alive against your own will. To fight this losing battle. Also constantly having to pay off huge amounts of money. Losing many parts of life that made it worth living and enjoying. This is what terminally ill patients go through on a daily basis. Patients have been stripped of their own choices. To live as they want to live. Them being able to choose how and what they do is their own choice and life. It is their basic human right, even if it means they would decide to end their life because of their insufferable pain. Euthanasia and assisted suicide/euthanasia should be legalized. That is what I am here to talk about today. Why it should be and what exactly it is.  

Terminally ill patients are denied a basic human right. The right to choose how they live. Shouldn’t they be able to choose if they want to die or how they want to? Just think of your life being controlled and being forced to stay alive. Even though you don’t want to be. They are being denied a basic human right. Their free will. It puts more of a burden on them, keeping them alive and eventually then they start to feel like they are a burden to others. Being forced to be taken care of like if they were a child. Even then they are fully aware of what lies ahead of their inevitable and sad future. 

According to Morrow over 90% feels as they lost autonomy and also the ability to participate in some activities. Also autonomy, which is them being able to make independent decisions. Them not being able to decide introduces suffering to their well being said Kiitzman. According to Meyer, he has said that the inevitable just stretches out a bit longer. It is their life, their personal choice. They shouldn’t be forced to stay alive against their own will. Does it do more good then it does harm? Not only that, but the costs to keep them alive is extremely expensive for most. It can range from 2,000-10,000 dollars a month. Those numbers are crazy for just one month. LSC states that keeping a dying person alive is incredibly costly as stated before. Reason being it costs so much is the medicine and drugs prices have risen. 

They have risen because medicine has advanced so much that they are good at keeping dying people alive. Although not to the point of actually healing them completely. It does nothing but drag out their eventual death. Often patients are worried their family may go into ruins just for them. Some examples of high priced treatments would be chemotherapy, which can cost up to $50,000. Also heart surgery can go up to $40,000. They also think it would ease the family’s pain. 

Cons of Euthanasia 

A popular reasoning against assisted suicide is the Hippocratic oath. According to LSC it is the oath physicians take. It states that they will relieve pain and not administer deadly medicine to the patient. How can one be forced against their will to do something and simultaneously have one of their rights taken? Richard Meyer says “The real problem is that many of the patients that are being treated aggressively, if you ask them, they would prefer less aggressive care. They would prefer to be cared for at home. They’d prefer to go to hospice. If they were given a choice. But we don’t adequately give them a choice.”. It just doesn’t seem fair at all.

Pros of Euthanasia 

The right to make decisions shouldn’t be stripped away from one. Assisted suicide is you know the assistance with suicide. It is available in only 6 states in the U.S.. Also it’s only limited to those who are to die within 6 months. It’s also done with a professional like a physician of course. No dark web assassins or your good old pal Ted Bundy, but in assisted suicide the physician themselves do not administer the lethal dose. If the physician did it, then it would be considered euthanization not assisted suicide. 

The way they do it is the patient will be handed the drug and is mixed into a drink or a food like apple sauce. 5 Minutes into taking the dose they will slip into a coma and depending on the person they will usually die within half an hour. Although if you’re in really great shape or if you’re incredibly overweight, it can take up to 48 hours max. Doesn’t that sound way more peaceful than being in constant suffering and agony. Many will go through depression often losing dignity as they watch as their quality of life decreases. 

Not only do they go through the pain of the disease, but they may have but may suffer from the side effects of the medicine too, only making it much worse and adding to the damage. As it drags on they tend to view living as pointless. At this point you might think assisted suicide would be a basic right to them. Yet sadly it’s not like that. Not at all. According to Hefler “Sometimes not just about the actual assisted suicide and going through with it, but just having that option. It is relieving to them.”. On another note, remember the Hippocratic oath? It sounds like yeah that should be followed by everyone in the medical field. Doctors should be healing the patient not harming them. 

Yet only few places actually use it. Not too many places use it because of its inconsistency. For example, chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is used to battle cancer. It uses radiation, which obviously does lots of harm to us. Some of the major obstacles they will go through often is great pain, vomiting, and hair loss. That’s a reason why technically they can’t deny the right to assisted suicide. Sounds a little conflicted right? Another example of why they should be allowed to make the decision to die is on some occasions is the treatment may do nothing or just end up making it worse. Allowing them to make this decision would introduce greater bonds and trust between patient and physician. Even in Britain half of the deaths there are decided medically, says Jenkins. Giving back their right which was wrongfully taken would greatly decrease the suffering many go through just to stay alive.

There are countless reasons as to why one would choose to rather die than live. Two of the main reasons and surprising one is pain and autonomy, as stated before autonomy is your right to make decisions for yourself. Many live with the fact that they can’t do that anymore. It brings more  problems than it does solutions to the table. Another cause is they don’t want to go through any unnecessary suffering. Why would one choose to go through horrible pain when there’s  a way out. 

Is it Moral to Do Euthanasia?

Now you may be thinking, isn’t that selfish of them? It would hurt their family and loved ones. Yes you are correct to a certain degree. Yet would you stand there and watch that loved one go through awful and tremendous amounts of pain every single day. Being forced to stay alive just to endure avoidable suffering. Then who’s the one that’s  actually selfish here. As much as it would hurt their loved ones wouldn’t it mean much more to them if you let them go as they wish to. 

Would you really want to watch the inevitable stretched out just a little bit longer meaning more time on this earth for them. When even then on the other side of that coin it also means they have more time to suffer on this earth. Meyer states that they often feel a burden to others. Why stay when they aren’t really even happy. Can you really say you love them and care for them when they go through this kind of torment just for you. Sounds a bit selfish and awful. 

Think about you constantly being an agonizing pain, wouldn’t you want the relief of the pain, to go away?. Of course you would. Who in the right mind wouldn’t? Absolutely no one wants to be in pain except for a few weird folks, but we’re not going to judge or talk about that here. Also especially their family and friends too. It just comes down to being your right. No one should be able to decide for you against your will. You should decide how you live and not others.

 

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