Euthanasia And Assisted Suicide

Euthanasia is the intentional killing by act or omission of a dependent human being for his or her alleged benefit.” People all over the world, suffer from painful diseases and illnesses and become desperate for assisted suicide. There are two types of euthanasia. The first is voluntary euthanasia, is when the person who is killed has requested to be killed. The second type is involuntary euthanasia. This occurs when “euthanasia is performed on a person who is able to provide informed consent, but does not, either because they do not choose to die or because they were not asked.” It is our decision whether we want to live or die, or how long we want to live or die, therefore voluntary euthanasia is appropriate, for somebody who is suffering
from sickness. Involuntary euthanasia is complicated. As long as the person can speak and make a decision for him or herself, the persons’ decision should be granted. If he or she cannot make a decision due to mental or physical reasons, that person should simply have involuntary euthanasia practiced upon him or her. Voluntary euthanasia should be allowed, but involuntary should not unless he or she is mentally unable to make a decision for him or herself. This is where his or her parents/guardians get involved.
Some say that voluntary euthanasia should be illegal as it is fundamentally considered as murder.
Doctors in the past who have completed euthanasia have brought negative results for them and their occupations. This is because doctors from the past ended up becoming charged for committing euthanasia, as it was illegal in the past. A person who commits suicide is not a bad person. In whatever way, if somebody is attempting to end themselves, it should be our responsibility to stop them. If a person is attempting to jump off a bridge, it is wrong to watch something like that, so he or she should help him or her, just like helping somebody who is suffering from diseases and sickness, rather than helping them die because things can change in the future for those individuals suffering in pain and agony, to live a better life one
day.

However, killing somebody painlessly who is suffering from sickness and diseases everyday of their life is the right thing to do, as he or she will end the everyday suffering that puts the person through every single day.
Section 7 of the charter states that everybody has the right to live, liberty and cannot be taken away of these rights, except in confirmation with the principals of justice. This section of the charter was a very controversial one. Sue Rodriguez a 42 year old mother was suffering from ALS, and demanded assisted suicide. After losing to a 5-4 decision the judge did not grant euthanasia to her. There is no point of letting somebody live, who is mentally, physically and emotionally suffering from pain. If the judge granted Sue Rodriguez assisted suicide her pain and humiliation will come to an end and her soul would rest in peace. This is why voluntary euthanasia should be legal to use on anybody who is suffering everyday from aching and illness. Nancy B, 25, whom had been suffering from progressive motor paralysis, was stuck to her hospital bed. After winning the case, she had successfully been granted euthanasia to be practiced upon her by the judge. Since everybody has the right to live and make personal decisions, Nancy B has the right to end her life as she has a good reason. Nancy B and both Sue Rodriguez admitted their sufferings and gave permission to doctors to perform voluntary
euthanasia.

Some say that involuntary euthanasia should be illegal as it considered “murder”. It is wrong to take somebody’s life away from them without permission, because it should be his or her decision to live or die. If the person is unable to make a decision to whether live or die it would be too abundant of a risk to take his or her life away, as the future for the person who is suffering could be blissful then it is at the moment. People are also against involuntary euthanasia as it can cause serious consequences to the individual who performs it on the patient, which can lead to second degree murder, which then leads to an unanswered death, where we do not know whether the person who was suffering chose to live or die. Whereas later, the individual who executed him or her is left suffering behind the bars, leaving the individual and his or her loved ones, devastated.

However, involuntary euthanasia should be illegalized, unless he or she is unable to make a decision to live or die. For example, if a person is not in the mental state to make a decision, or if he or she is too young, it should be the parent or guardian who chooses to whether spare the person’s life or let them suffer; otherwise involuntary euthanasia should never be allowed to be practice upon a person. In 1993, Robert Latimer killed his 12 year old daughter by putting her in the cab of his pickup truck, and using carbon monoxide to finish the job. Since his daughter was not in the state to make a decision to whether live or die, Latimer made a mature decision to spare her life. Even though Latimer did commit an illegal act (second degree murder) the government should understand the condition his daughter was in and should have respected the decision Latimer made for his family. If a person was to make a decision for him or herself, by simply stating that he or she still wants to live, nobody has the right to kill that person, as his or her rights will be broken. Canadians are also not very interested in legalizing euthanasia because of doctors who may take advantage of it, which could mean killing (euthanatizing) the person suffering without any written consent. The government should not have the right to run an individuals life, if somebody is suffering everyday from pain and disease, it does not make any sense for the government to decide the fate of the patient.

In the future, things will hopefully change for those individuals suffering every single day of their life. Perhaps the government will finally realize what people go through everyday and change this part of the law as it will spare many lives and many families in our country. Voluntary euthanasia should be allowed to be practiced upon anybody as he or she is doing what is right for them. If an individual is simply suffering everyday and asks to be killed that decision needs to be respected. Involuntary euthanasia should not be allowed as it is our decision, as humans to choose what is right for us, not the governments, or the doctors After all, the charter states that everybody has the right to live, liberty and cannot be taken away of these rights, except in confirmation with the principals of justice. Thus, it should be a person’s decision to whether he or she wants to live or die.

Bibliography

- Falconer, Tim. That Good Night. Toronto: Penguin Group, 2009

- http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/LOP/researchpublications/919-e.htm, Marlissa Tiedemann, Dominique Valiquet 17 July 2008

- “The Right to Die” Right to die. N.P., N.D. Web, 2012

- http://www.euthanasia.com/, Robert Schindler, 2012

- Baird, Robert. Euthansia. The moral issue New York: Prometheus, 1989.