Mr. Monteith
Honors English 10
23 November 2014
In today’s society there are still many cureless, horrible medical conditions like cancer
and Alzheimers. The patient finds themselves lying in a bed taking treatment after treatment, and eventually coming to the realization all the care and treatments are going to a lost cause. The thought of “I just wanna die” has probably gone through his or her head a time or two. No person wants to watch their loved one lie in a bed so long there are sores on his or her behind. People can always refuse medical treatment but the dying process can be very slow and painful to watch let alone experience. With a doctor’s consent, people should have the right to end their life with medical assistance in all states and territories in the United States.
It is true euthanasia is against some people’s moral or religious beliefs. A belief that an
individual is put on earth to live a life and make a positive impact. Furthermore, other people may feel pressured to make a decisions as they may feel as a burden to others. But in fact, 89% of people who wanted to have assistance in their death was because of their loss of abiltity to engage in enjoyable activities. Only 36% of people who requested this did it for being a burden on loved ones and only 3% because of treatment. Some people think the idea of legal voluntary euthanasia will take credibility away from hospitals. People do get discouraged and make senseless decisions in a time of crisis. In fact, having such a serious medical condition or disease could very much heighten these.
However, people should have the right to do as they please with his or her own bodies. If
a patient prefers to end their life with grace, instead of living with hospital care, it should not affect a hospital’s creditability. In fact and 3% of people who ask for assistance because of treatment (Yount 295). Making this decision does not mean a hospital would not do everything they can to keep the patient alive. Additionally, a person may decide they no longer want to continue the treatment and then live in agony.
A person should not have to sit in a hospice bed waiting for their painful disease to kill
them. Janey Sklovysky is a doctor who supports the legalization of euthanasia after watching her mother essentially rot in her hospital bed. After her mother got ill, her loving personality was overshadowed by anger and aggression. She lost what made her her, she could no longer walk to her garden and felt helpless. Sklovyski describes her mothers body as, “her muscles were stiff and her skin paperthin. Despite the best care, pressure sores around her bottom were starting to crack open”
(Medew 35). No person should have to watch their loved ones have a slow, painful death when there could be better ways. Janey Sklovysky watched her mother suffer and “felt like a crime had been committed against her mother…
[Sklovysky’s mother] had gone ‘gaga’, felt useless and had no quality of life”
(Medew 78). Janey Sklovyski felt like the law against euthanasia gave animals more rights than her mother, “‘If you can be charged with cruelty to an animal, I think I could have been charged with cruelty to my mum’”(Medew 50). If a person were to keep their animal alive when it could no longer to get up or use the bathroom, the owner would be considered to be touring the animal. It is not right for a person to suffer through life when their time is limited. Like many people, Sklovyski thought about putting her mothers
misery to bed herself with a lethal dose of morphine. But she could not follow through with it as she has her own family to support and could not afford to face the legal consequences.
While dying people can be prescribed painkillers to make the process a little more