Euthanasia In Herman Melville's Bartleby

According to the peer reviewed article “The Cultural Logic of Euthanasia: "Sad Fancying’s" in Herman Melville's "Bartleby"” by Rosemarie Garland Thomson who is a professor at Emory University that focuses on disability studies, she compared Roosevelt Dawson a 20 years old student and Christopher Reeve who is the lead actor for Superman. Both men’s lives and bodies were substantially transformed instantaneously and require them to be assisted by others in daily life task. Rosemarie Garland Thomson states in her article that “Although their impairments rendered their embodied existence substantially the same, Reeve’s story inspires hope, whereas Dawson’s inspires despair. Where Dawson’s disability justified his death, Reeve’s disability galvanizes his life and stirs ours. Dawson’s preference to die and Reeve’s preference to live both seem warranted”. This clearly shows that a lot of different factor contributes to euthanasia in general. Reeve are an actor that has all
the financial support that he need to continue living through his disability while Dawson’s life became a burden to his family making his life worthless compared to Reeve’s. Dawson’s could have avoided opting for euthanasia if he has all the financial and moral support. ADMD choose to portray the feeling of the patient opting for euthanasia to show to its audience that although euthanasia is done under a patient choice, it does not mean that they are full heartedly willing to leave their family or friends. The caption “Mr.
Sarkozy, must you be put in this position to change your stand on euthanasia?” that are printed in white with black backgrounds located on the top left of the poster conveys the message to the audience that euthanasia should be an individual choice and should not be controlled by any government or political agency. The caption is trying to emphasize that euthanasia should be legalized instead of being banned by a governing committee. Although there are a few countries around that legalize euthanasia, most country jurisdiction banned the practice of euthanasia to prevent abuse and misuse. Euthanasia are something that are socially unacceptable. Unless an individual has experience a situation where themselves or their friend/family are stuck in a situation where euthanasia is one of the option to end the suffering. Until then euthanasia society are stuck with the mindset that controlling death challenges the act of God because they fear that doctors and physician would abuse the
right.