A couple of years ago my mom’s friend Patty was diagnosed with a deadly disease called multiple sclerosis which they had no treatment for and was slowly eating her insides away. She had always that she didn’t want to suffer to this horrible disease and wanted to be put out once it reached a certain point. The only problem is that in the state of Florida you aren’t allowed to have a physician aid you in giving medication to kill someone or also known as Euthanasia. So in order to help her out, her family would save money in order to be able to purchase the right drugs in order to perform Euthanasia themselves, unfortunately by the time they finally saved up enough money for the drugs, the disease had already taken the life of her. Now this might not seem like anything huge, but it’s a very common story and creates the controversy of Euthanasia. Patty was in terrible pain, she would lose the ability to use her limbs amongst other things, and she was basically just left with not being able to do anything other than lay down in her bed. She had said before that she didn’t want her family to hold on to her if she couldn’t do anything by herself. She was forced to suffer because Florida and the majority of the world has banned Euthanasia because most people believe its borderline murder and unmoral. But I ask you, what is possibly moral about making someone terminally ill suffer when the said person asks to be put out her misery. This is why I believe that Euthanasia should be legalized because it’s our choice if we don’t want to suffer and because in some cases it’s the moral thing to do. The Discovery Institute tells us that euthanasia is physician-assisted suicide through giving drugs that will basically give you a painless and peaceful death. There are 3 types of Euthanasia: active Euthanasia, passive Euthanasia, and non-voluntary Euthanasia. Active Euthanasia is the real controversial one; it’s when the physician gives the patients the drugs to kill them. Passive Euthanasia is when the physician helps the patient die by withholding medication for treatment at the patient’s request. Non-voluntary is when the physician either withholds medication or gives the patient drugs to kill them against their will or knowledge; this is basically considered murder. The first country to legalize Euthanasia was the Netherlands back in 2002, since then 6 countries/states have legalized it.
Now imagine yourself being in the hospital, lying on that terribly uncomfortable pain from some illness that has no cure and no real treatment for it. Slowly losing your ability to use your legs, your arms getting harder to breathe. All you want is for the pain to end, you will ask the doctor for medication of any kind just for the agonizing pain to just give you a day of relief. Nothing is working and you decide that you’ve had enough; they tell you that you have about 4 months to live. You are content with your life and have enjoyed it to the best of your ability and are ready to move on, so you ask the doctor if they can just give you a drug to put you asleep and then have the drug kill you in your sleep. Unfortunately you live in a area where euthanasia is illegal, so the doctors tell you that you have no choice but to live with the pain until the disease kills you. How can anyone say that’s moral? Making someone suffer under your watch, that’s what is inhumane. As a human being you are in control of your own life and always have choices that you make that have a direct impact on your life. So why is it that when it comes to how you want to die, the choice is suddenly stripped from you? If you are at a stage when your quality of life is low and you’ve had enough, who can possibly tell you that you will just have to deal with it. The point of Euthanasia is for patients who are terminally ill and have little chance to enjoy life as it’s meant to be.
Now I understand that there are many strong