Persuasive Essay On Euthanasia

As the western world is putting more and more emphasis on individual autonomy, the question of whether or not terminally ill patients should be able to end their life early because of unbearable pain is becoming widely debated. The Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines euthanasia as “the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy” (“Euthanasia”), and comes from the Greek word meaning “good death” (Humphry). The practice is currently legal in Belgium, Canada, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and the states of California, Oregon, Vermont, Washington (Burki), and most recently Colorado (Brown), and is being considered by many other territories.
Timothy E. Quill, a professor of medicine at the University of Rochester in New York points out that hospice care can improve the quality of life for most patients, but “despite what doctors and nurses report about achieving good symptom relief for hospice patients in the last week of life, the patients themselves often say that they are still experiencing severe pain and shortness of breath” (Quill, “Dying Patients”). He argues that when hospice care fails, patients should be able to legally discuss assisted suicide with their doctors and request euthanasia if they feel it is right for them (Quill, “Dying
One of the basic tenets of this country is the separation of church and state, so religion should not play a role in the debate over whether or not to legalize euthanasia in the different states of the United States.
Bill Muehlenberg, an ethicist and philosopher suggests that euthanasia should be considered homicide because it is “ an act that directly and intentionally causes a person's death” (Muehlenberg). He argues that there is a big difference between allowing to die by the means of reducing treatment and intentionally taking a patient’s life. The first, he says, is acceptable because it is simply allowing a patient to die of natural causes; the second is killing. He concludes that “no civilized society can permit the legalised killing of its own citizens, even if done in the name of compassion”