Essay about Euthanasia and Suicide

Submitted By stubzninety
Words: 917
Pages: 4

Assisted suicide has been an uprising issue politically and ethically. Many politicians try to avoid the subject while campaigning merely because it is a topic that’s so complex. The community has a strong feeling when euthanasia is brought into a subject of matter. Euthanasia is Greek for “good death” meaning of ending life in a painless manner. If a person feels as if they want to go due to the fact of some form of suffering, they can ask a licensed doctor to euthanize them, which can painlessly put that person out of their misery. The dilemma is that majority of the religious society proclaims assisted suicide as a barbaric act simply for the reason that killing one’s self is taking god’s gift away, incidentally deems that person to eternal hell. Whether or not if that statement is true, the problem continues to occur therefore petitions and protests are formed globally each year. In all reality, who really has a say to what is right or wrong for a person? The proper answer should be the patient, but in actuality it’s the government’s people. A supporting fact is that Oregon, Washington, Vermont, and Montana legalized physician aid in dying with stipulations that need to be followed. This contemporary world issue also includes three countries that legalized euthanasia and they are: Luxembourg, Netherlands, and Belgium. Each country that legalized euthanasia has provisions to take an effect on the situation. Sadly, more countries are pushing for the legalization of handling a situation that cannot be improved or fixed of a terminally ill patient. With that being said, all governments who propose authorizing assisted suicide from physicians should take the patient’s wish into consideration because no power has control over that person’s body. If a patient who is handling a sickness that is causing painful reactions and they feel as if they don’t want to suffer no more; so the patient can make the saddening decision to end their life with euthanasia. The people that inhabit the world must set aside beliefs that assisted suicide is morally wrong and reflect deep within themselves that others posses the right to do what is best for the situation given. Physician assisted suicide originally became a national outcry when Pathologist, Jacob “Jack” Kevorkian, also known as Doctor Death, aided over 130 suicides, his first patient in 1990. Kevorkian's bibliography noted that in many ways he did play god with his 'death machine,” but he did so in moral approach, he even turned away ninety percent of those who sought for him. It wasn't until 1994 when Dr. Kevorkian's faced one of many trials regarding his assistance. After being acquitted from trial three times, Kevorkian had met his legal doom in 1999 where he was tried for his direct role of voluntary euthanasia. At 70, he was convicted with a sentence between 10 to 25 years. Kevorkian stated, in regards to his practice, he asked ”how can you regret helping a suffering patient?” In 1994, Oregon became the first state in the United States of America to legally make use of euthanasia as long as that person is severely ill and is a resident of Oregon. The first country who was permitted to carry out the assistance of the person’s right to die was the Netherlands in April of 2002. Doctor Philip Nitschke was the first ever to legally euthanize a man named Bob Dent who was a prostate cancer sufferer in the Northern territory of Australia. Doctor Nitschke stated that all suicide