Mercy Killing In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Imagine a terminally ill person living day to day knowing that they are going to die. Some people may argue that mercy killing is the most ethical and compassionate death for this person. Others may say that mercy killing is terrible and is considered murder. In the book, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, George is facing this dilemma when he has to make the decision to kill Lennie. Lennie, a cognitively disabled man, has just killed Curley’s wife on the new ranch they moved to. George made the correct decision and took Lennie’s life.
George had the option to kill Lennie or let Curley, a stranger, kill his best friend. After Curley finds out Lennie killed his wife he says, “When you see ‘um don’t give ‘im no chance. Shoot for his guts. That’ll double ‘im
George suggests locking him up to Slim and Slim says, “...An’ s’pose they lock him up an’ strap him down and put him in a cage. That ain’t no good, George” (97). Lennie only knew life with George, so if he got locked up he would be very confused and never understand why. In addition, others may argue that George and Lennie could have escaped like they did in Weed, but Lennie would just keep making the same mistakes. When they escaped in Weed George described the incident to Lennie and said, “We run. They was lookin’ for us, but they didn’t catch us” (7). Although Lennie and George escaped Weed it would not have been the same because Lennie killed someone at the Ranch and George knew that could happen again. All in all, George was right in killing Lennie.
In summary, George made the correct decision by killing Lennie. Mercy killing was the best option because Lennie was cognitively disabled and could not comprehend what he had done. Overall, it was the most compassionate and ethical way to end Lennie’s suffering from his cognitive