Euthanasia: Death and Life Support Essay

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Euthanasia, also known as assisted-suicide, physician-assisted-suicide, doctor-assisted suicide, and loosely termed mercy killing, by definition is to take deliberate action with the express intention of ending a life to relieve intractable suffering. (What Is Euthanasia (assisted Suicide)? What Is The Definition Of Assisted Suicide Or Euthanasia? 1) In 1999, Dr. Jack Kevorkian was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to 25 years in a maximum security prison for his work in assisting more than 130 of suicides for terminally ill people. (Kevorkian Case: 'Dr. Death' on Trial 1) (Dr. Jack Kevorkian Dies at 83; A Doctor Who Helped End Lives 1) Should this type of suicide be legal? Should people with cancer and other terminal diseases be able to choose to be put out of their misery? Should the families be able to make this decision in the event that the person who is ill is unable to? Yes they should be able to have these choices.
The first reason that euthanasia should be legal is the cost of life support and resuscitation. Last year, Medicare paid $50 billion just for doctor and hospital bills during the last two months of patients’ lives. It costs up to $10,000 a day to keep somebody in the ICU on life support. (The Cost of Dying 1) Medicare pays up to $55,000 for chemotherapy for a patient with advanced cancer, and it only extends the life of a person by about a month and a half. If one wishes to be kept on life support, when they finally do pass they are leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills for their families to pay. If stated in the will of a terminally ill patient, their estate goes to a certain relative. That relative is then responsible for those bills. Most people don’t have the income or savings to pay those bills that are left behind. Health care costs could be reduced, so they could save those save estates and lower insurance premiums.
Another reason that that euthanasia should be legalized is that people have the right to die and the right to choose that death. If someone is terminally ill, they should have the right to be put out of their misery. While they are still healthy enough to make conscious decisions, people should be able to choose to die before they are unable to function for themselves. By illegalizing euthanasia, those rights are taken away, forcing those people to suffer. Not only are the patients suffering, but so are the families of those people. By taking away a person’s right to end their life, they are being forced to grow weak and brittle. Without the right to die peacefully by euthanasia, many people may choose other ways to commit suicide which could be more horrifying and traumatic for the loved ones. By making the decision to end their life and
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