Assisted Suicide

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Assisted Suicide

One thing I hate about death is that there is no hope once you die. One only gets a chance to make things better or worse when he/she is alive, but when they take that last breathe, their fate is sealed. There are many ways, which lead to one attaining this position (death); however, the final state is the same. Some of the ways that have forever been argued over as means of ending once life are capital punishment and euthanasia. Euthanasia being main topic of concern in this paper, it is first good to understand that physicians assist suicides. The mention of the name Jack Kevorkian brings to mind the 1990 and the 1999 campaign, which was done in order to advocate for euthanasia (Bergner, 2010). He had already come up with some machines, which would assist in this practice known as Mercitron and Thanatron. Susan Wolf’s stand on the meaning of life even at its end should be advocated even in the years to come.

Susan Wolf found herself challenged by the same principles she had believed in her father wanted to carry out an assisted suicide. However, even on such challenging circumstances, she still said ‘no’. There is no price on life. Whoever/whatever one believes is responsible for the creation of human life, one thing clear is that human beings are just agents of bringing life into the planet. Life has value from the time it is conceived to the last breathe. As Wolf said no to his father’s question to the doctor “Is there any way to accelerate this?” (Wolf, 2008), it only became evident when the life is still important even if it is your own going through a compromising situation. Her father had thyroid cancer, liver and lung cancer. This cancer had made a blocking in his esophagus, which made it hard to swallow anything and left his bed full of blood.

In another article, that she has written talking about euthanasia in the context of women, Wolf feels that euthanasia would really diminish the lives of women. Most women will tend to prefer it instead of finding themselves in a situation where they would have no option but lie and be cared for as compared to how they are used to being the caregivers. The killings done by Kevorkian justified this. Half of the eight women patients who asked Kevorkian to help them die quickly had no terminal diseases. Out of the seventy-five patients he helped in the year 1997, 72% were female and three quarters of those had no terminal diseases. The other saddening factor is that most were in their middle ages.

Booth Gardner, who once governed the WashingtonState, had a major campaign that advocated for physician-assisted killings/euthanasia. He once said, “I can’t see where anybody benefits by hanging around” (Bergner, 2010). He suffered from Parkinson’s disease and was 71 years old then. The interesting thing is that with all his campaign, he did not live like someone who was preparing to die any time soon. He worked out with the help of a trainer at least thrice a week, had dreams of going up Mount Reiner, had chosen to endure two brain surgeries while conscious and once took an overdose of his drugs to see whether they could help him recover quickly. All these facts bring the confidence that people have ‘dot’ of hope even at the last moments. Administering euthanasia or physician-suicide completely erases all this hope (Gennaro, 2002).

The values of honesty, fairness, love, concern, amongst others, are still used today as much as they seem old fashioned. Those who seek for euthanasia do this out of self-pity and concern for themselves. “I can’t take this any more”, are the words mostly used. We, on the other hand, do not do much to help the situation. We add insult to injury by using words like, “I can’t see you going through this any more”, with tears rolling down our cheeks. On the other hand, the love that we have for people going through such circumstances, especially those who are close to us or are our family members makes us say ‘No’ like the way Wolf did. People should look at the bigger picture when dealing with issues. Of course, euthanasia is carried out all over the world, even secretly in the countries where it is illegal. However, if legalized, what good or damage would it do. Is it worth it? It is out of the questions such as “Is it fair?” that we try and find a middle ground in these controversies.

Many dilemmas concerning ethics have come up since time immemorial. Is death just death or will it all depend on the intention? Should prostitution be legalized? What is good and bad and who sets the rules? All these are questions that pop up at one point or the other. It is true that most of these issues have changed over the time. For example, prostitution and adultery, was not as much an issue in the past as it is now. One of the greatest factors, which have brought these changes, is the emergence of religion. How we were brought up will also tend to guide us on the decisions we make. For example, if we grew up in an environment where people openly did abortions or a neighborhood where there was a man killed every other day, then we will turn out to carry out the same activities and find no big deal in it (Jecker, Silbergeld, Jonsen, & Pearlman, 2007).

It has not been heard of many people, if any, who look forward to the day they will die. We all have a conscious. It is just that some people choose to ignore it and look the other side. As long as one is alive, there is still hope. Hope to be healed if not cured and hope to see your loved ones one more time. Euthanasia or physician assisted suicides kill all this hope. They say that it is time to go when we are not so sure, whether it is really time to go. Gardner said “My Life, my death, my control” (Kingsbury, 2008). Although this may be true on one aspect, it is a fallacy on the other. Ones life is not all theirs. It is their parent’s life, their spouse’s life, their children’s lives and other loved ones. All these people have a right to see you and to know what is going on in your life because they love and have played a major role in us being where we are. Saying yes to euthanasia is shutting them away.

Works Cited

Bergner, D. (2010). A Death in the Family. New York Times. Retrieved from

http://www.newyorklife.com/nyl/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=c162a2b3019d2210a2b3019d221024301cacRCRD

Gennaro, R. (2002). A dialogue on ethical issues of life and death. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America.

Jecker, N., Silbergeld, A., Jonsen, A., & Pearlman, R. (2007). Bioethics: an introduction to the history, methods, and practice. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlette Publishers.

Kingsbury, K. (May 16, 2008). A New Fight to Legalize Euthanasia. Time. Retrieved from

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1807401,00.html

Wolf, S. M. (September 1, 2008). Confronting Physician Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia: My Father’s Death. Hastings Centre Report, 38(5): 23-26.