Courtly Love

Utopia: Suicide and Euthanasia

Utopia by Sir Thomas More portrays similar and different ways the society of today manages suicide and euthanasia. Some of the similarities that will be considered are as follows: helping the terminally ill pass comfortably, encouraging the terminally ill to quit their suffering and move on, and having the ill cared for that can be cured. The difference that will be considered is that of how suicide is seen in the utopian society versus that of today’s society. To start with, today’s society and the utopian society are similar by taking care of the sick, and helping individuals become cured. Utopia society tried to help cure the sick, and kept them stable until they were healed. More states, “As I said before, the sick are carefully tended, and nothing is neglected in the way of medicine or diet which might cure them.”(624). In today’s society, there are doctor’s offices and hospitals that help do the same as the utopian society. Doctor’s prescribe medications, and staff at the hospital helps individuals until they are healthier. Encouraging the terminally ill to end their suffering and move on is practiced in both the utopian society and today’s society. The individuals in both societies still receive treatment and care. More states, “Everything possible is done to mitigate the pain of those who are suffering from incurable diseases; and visitors do their best to console them by sitting and talking with them.”(624). Utopian society tried to encourage the terminally ill to end their suffering through priest and public officials. More states, “But if the disease is not only incurable but excruciatingly and constantly painful, then the priest and public officials come and urge the invalid not to endure such agony any longer.”(624). In today’s society, doctors in the hospital and hospice do the same in encouraging terminally ill to move on and not suffer anymore. Doctor’s encourage individuals to consider becoming DNR, or do not resuscitate. This does not mean do not treat. The individuals that choose the DNR status are stating that they want a natural death. By being made a DNR status, the patient is making the decision to move on.
Likewise, utopian society and today’s society helped the individual pass comfortably. The individuals in the utopian society would “starve themselves to death or, having been put to sleep, are freed from life without any sensation of dying.”(624) Utopian society believed in euthanasia as a way of helping end suffering in the terminally ill. In today’s society, when a doctor sees that a patient is at the end of life, and is suffering, the doctor will suggest comfort measures only. Comfort measures only consist of keeping the patient comfortable at all times, and generally include high doses of medications that include antianxiety and narcotics. These patients tend to expire very peacefully second to the medication they receive intravenously.
Utopian society and today’s society views suicide differently. In utopian society, when an individual decides to commit suicide, it is not taken kindly to, unless the individual did it due to the fact he was terminally ill. More states, “ Under these circumstances, when death is advised by the authorities, they consider self-destruction honorable. But the suicide, who takes his own life without the approval of priest and senate, they consider unworthy either of earth or fire, and thrown his body, unburied and disgraced, into a bog.” (624). In today’s society, suicide is not an appropriate means of expiration no matter the circumstances. Doctors in today’s society try to seek help for individuals that have even thoughts of suicide, but have not acted on those thought yet. However, if one chooses to commit suicide, the body is not just tossed aside, but is given to the family members to either bury or cremate.
Today’s society and the utopian society have similar and different ways euthanasia and suicide are managed. Sir Thomas More depicts this in his work Utopia. Both societies are similar in the way each encourages the terminally ill to move on, helping the terminally ill move on comfortably, and helping those curable become better. The difference is the way each views suicide, and the consequence of the suicidal act.