Saturday, August 8, 2009
Euthanasia
Class today sparked a pretty heated debate on euthanasia. One of the strongest arguments made on behalf of legalizing euthanasia is probably that people feel that euthanasia, like abortion, is a choice issue. Some people feel that it is the patients choice whether or not they want to end their life when it is proven that there is no chance for them to get better. Some people don't want to be kept on a feeding tube for years and years. However, there is still many pros and cons that have to do with euthanasia. One pro would obviously be that it would end a patients suffering. A con might be that you have to question under who's authority the euthanasia would take place. This could be extremely difficult in some cases, for example, the case of Terri Schiavo. Her parents wanted to keep her living while her husband kept saying that Terri would not of wanted to be kept on life support even when she had no chance of getting better. An argument made in class today was that if euthanasia was legalized then that would free up medical funds to help people who had a chance to get better. The money could be put towards finding a cure for cancer or something useful like that. However, another argument was made that if euthanasia was legalized in all states that we would just keep pushing standards and it would not only be people who have no shot at getting better, it would evolve into mentally ill patients, and possibly handicapped patients. I personally think that when dealing with euthanasia you need to deal with a case to case basis and I think that it is up to the patient and the family.
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While I think many people believe that the choice should be up to the patient in such cases, the problems arise when patients no longer have a capacity to make such decisions, like Tyler was pointing out. People, specifically the government, making decisions for others, is the main problem here. What if two family members have a different opinion about what to do, or that the government doesn't view you as a benefit to society. These are the more complicated issues. Does the right to life extend to someone who needs care to survive but is unable to pay, either now or in the future? I'm not sure there is a clear way to write a law on this issue and it needs to be debated, as we are doing.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that there is nothing the matter with the topic of euthanasia. I also believe that it should be the patient’s choice for it they want to end up putting an end to their suffering. As Joanna had mentioned before if an individual has been clinically proven to be brain dead and there is no sign of them getting better, the money could be put towards a better use. Also, in the case of an individual that is terminally ill that is just going to progressively get worse, why should they be forced to go through the pain and suffering when they could possibly have the means to put an end to their suffering peacefully. However, the only problem that I have if an individual was to be taken off life support such as the Terri Schiavo case, I do not feel that they should just be able to have the feeding tubes removed in order to let the person starve to death. A person should have to endure any pain of that sort. I believe that a drug should be administered to help with process.
ReplyDeleteI believe that euthanasia is ones right and should be decided by the person suffering and their family. It should also be decided on the circumstances of each case individually. Those that have no chance of recovering from a condition, such as being brain dead or having machines breath for them, should be allowed to be let go at their own or their family's request. I think that an extensive review of paperwork and treatments on a terminally ill patient should be taken into account before a terminally ill patient makes a conscious decision to ask for the doctors help.
ReplyDeleteEuthanasia is a pretty touchy topic and I can see your points. There are pros and cons to each side, of course, that is why there is debate and it is unclear on whether or not it should be legal. I honestly think that euthanasia should not be legal because it would cause too much chaos. In my mind, people would be pulling the plugs everywhere because hospitals suck. If anyone is there long enough, they are going to want to kill themselves and give up unless they have some pretty strong will to live. I also think it is a form a unjustifiable suicide.
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