Right To Die Controversy

The Right to Die Controversy
Who are we to say when we should die? Are we trying to play God, or do we just want the right to end the inevitable a little sooner than God’s plan for us? This paper will discuss pros and cons of euthanasia with stories and research. Such as the case of a ninety five year old comma patient, whose family receives the news that she could live for months, years even in a vegetative state on life support; leaving the family questioning whether or not to pull the plug and put an end to what otherwise would be like the “death of a hundred deaths.” Another example of this would be the case of thirteen year old Hannah Jones, whose leukemia therapy has left her with a hole in her heart, leaving her needing a life-saving
heart transplant. Hannah says she has endured enough traumas and refuses to get the transplant that could inevitably save her life. There is also the case of Jack Kevorkian the doctor of death who assisted terminally ill patients with suicide to help them end what seemed to him like endless suffering and prolonging of the inevitable death to come.
One specific group of people this pertains to would be hospice patients’ and those in nursing homes or hospitals who may feel like there is no end in sight to their suffering, and that they are a financial burden to their families by their rising health care expenses. Patients at the end of life due to incurable illnesses such as cancer, whose pain is so great that the medicines to help with the pain are not strong enough to dissipate it, may ask the question: “Why must I go on living?”
Why is it so morally wrong and unethical for humans to choose the right to die? We as humans won’t watch our animals suffer when they’re in pain and euthanize them to stop their suffering. So what makes the choice to end human life a decision only God has the right to answer? Euthanasia comes from a Greek word meaning “good death”. If euthanasia is such, then why is it given such a bad reputation? Humans all work to have a good life, which in return should be ended with a good death. All of the Hospitals in the United States, with a few exceptions, give their patients the right to refuse medical treatment.
Is this possibly their way of giving patients the choice of living or dying without a breach of their civic duty to maintain life? Catholic health care facilities feel that it is wrong to deny a terminally ill patient of food and water. If the patient and the family decide against the measures it takes to maintain the patient’s life, the facilities explain their point of view on the issue, then ask the patient to go to another health care facility.
Physicians take a hypocritical oath that says “Do no harm”, but are they really harming a patient that is already near death by letting them make the choice not to sustain what little life they may have left. After living on life support for fifteen years, Terry Schiavo’s husband was granted the right to take her off after a long legal battle. Upon her death an autopsy was performed and they found her brain to be a half of its normal
size.
Kelly Bickell was a mother of a thirteen month old boy who suffered from a rare neuromuscular disease in which it was almost impossible to move his limbs or even smile. She made the decision to have her son removed from the ventilator keeping him alive after much disagreement with the father, who wanted to have a tracheotomy performed. This would allow the son to breathe on his own and be cared for at home, but was unadvised by physicians. During the court hearing with Ms. Bickell, the father decided to have the ventilator removed and allow their son to pass. Is it morally wrong for parents to decide for a child who is incapable of making the decision to die for themselves? Did this child stand a chance of what people would consider a normal life? Should we, as humans, euthanize a child who is so disfigured or dysfunctional that the chance at a normal life is slim to none?
What are the pros for someone who is terminally ill, brain dead or grossly disfigured or families of brain dead patient’s decision to end their life?
This maybe that they no longer have to fight, feel pain, or be what they feel as a financial burden to their families from the medical methods used to sustain their lives. The terminally ill also may feel some sense of dignity by being able to decide how and where they’re going to die. Families of children who are so grossly disfigured and unable to move and have a chance of a normal life may feel like they have given that child a way out of their later struggles. The families of brain dead patients may feel that their loved one in some sense was already dead by the lack of normal brain function, making it pointless to keep them alive by artificial
means. Some cons may be the sadness families feel because that person can no longer be with them here on Earth. They may also feel like they are committing a moral or unethical act; people that assist in patient suicides, such as Kevorkian, may be placed in prison for charges of murder. Also, people making the decision for those too young and incapable of deciding for their self may feel like they committed murder.
After caring for the elderly for many years, and caring for many terminally ill patients I have found myself feeling for them. Often praying for someone to end their pain and suffering and feeling for their families. It’s hard to imagine the stress of seeing a loved one in a great deal of pain and the financial burden it is to maintain life artificially when it is so unwanted. I’ve felt the feeling of longing and compassion for their suffering, wanting it to end, and wishing there was something that could be done, but knowing that through moral and ethical means there was nothing. I know if I ever found myself terminally ill and that there was nothing that could be done, I wouldn’t want artificial measures to prolong my life.
So I guess you can say I’m for the decision of the right to die. There is no need for a person to suffer needlessly or for families to feel the financial strain of the medical expenses it takes to keep a person alive, who otherwise would be dead if not for artificial means. I also feel that if my family member was terminally ill and had no other means to end their suffering I would also let them have the right to choose how and where they wanted to die, giving them the right to have “a good death” and die how they want.