Any human being that has no will to live, is terminally ill or has no quality of life left should not have to suffer. These people have the right to die, and no one has the right to tell them otherwise.
Euthanasia, or assisted suicide, is the act or practice of taking or helping to take the life of a person who is hopelessly ill. It is done for mercy and is a humane approach to death.
One’s life should not be prolonged to simply keep a heart beating and oxygen flowing. Life is more than that and should be valued as such. Preservation of the flesh is not what living is about. Living is being coherent and communicating with the rest of the world.
People argue that Dr. Jack Kevorkian, known as “Dr. Death,” is playing God by assisting people in suicide. He is simply a compassionate human being who understands pain and hurting. He is not shooting or stabbing his patients. He simply gives them lethal doses of medication to put them peacefully to death.
If one believes that life is God’s gift to man and one cannot end it, then one must also believe it should not be prolonged artificially. Life is prolonged every day by medications and machines. Life is ended by executing prisoners. Why is it OK in these instances, but not with euthanasia?
What is it when people keep unconscious or comatose friends and family hooked up to machines just to continue to let them “live”? Is that not playing God also?
I am not saying that prolonging or ending life is wrong or right. My point is that it is no one else’s job to make that decision for others. It is hypocritical to believe in one and not the other.
No one — not a best friend, not a father or mother, not a husband or wife — can determine to what extent that person is feeling as far as pain. There is no Richter scale for pain or suffering. Complete reliable pain control is a myth. Pain is different for everyone. If it is intolerable to the person, then that person should not suffer.
Oregon is the only state to pass a Death With Dignity Act. It states that “an adult who is capable, as a resident of Oregon, and has been determined by the attending physician and consulting physician to be suffering from a terminal disease, and who has voluntarily expressed his or her wish to die, may make a written request for medication for the purpose of ending his or her life in a humane and dignified manner in accordance with this Act.”
Other states are waiting in anticipation to see the results of this Act.
According to Derek Humphry’s book, “Dying with Dignity: Understanding Euthanasia,” Americans consider euthanasia for many reasons. They dread spending their last days hooked up to equipment, bells and buzzers, while breathing and being fed through tubes. They also fear losing control over their own life and body. The decision should be left solely up to the individual. Humans prefer to preserve their dignity-even in death.
People become upset with the thought of others committing assisted suicide because they are being selfish. Only their feelings are being considered, not those of the victim.
Humans in general fear death and wish to live as long as possible, although until they have a terminally ill disease, the pain and fear of suffering is incomprehensible.
Legalizing assisted suicide would only do good in society. Such laws would bring precautions and prohibitions, making it much safer. Suffering is inhumane, everyone has the right to choose and there is no sufficient, morally incorrect reason for assisted suicide to be illegal.
With euthanasia, maybe humans would be more accepting and less fearful of death. A cancer or AIDS victim would not lay awake at night wondering to what extent his or her pain would increase, or better yet, when the suffering would end. Their friends and family would not remember them as weak, pained and bed-ridden. The terminally ill would leave this world a little happier, a little more content, as we all hope to leave one day.
Jennifer Parsons, a junior journalism major, is editor in chief of the Campus Times. She can be reached by e-mail at parsonsj@ulv.edu.
