A Case for Active Euthanasia

Death is deeply personal, generally feared, and wholly inescapable, but medical technology now can prolong our biological existence virtually indefinitely, and, with these advances, comes the question of whether we should pursue the extension of life in all cases. Most people would agree that, under certain circumstances, it would be preferable to cease our hold on life. Nearly everyone can agree that there are situations when terminally ill patients have the right to call for a halt to life-extending treatments, and that their physicians will have the moral obligation to comply. What appears to be quite difficult for us as a society to come to terms with is the thought that someone would actively intervene in the "natural" process of the death of another human being. Why is it tolerable, even desirable, to intervene in the "natural" process of death when it results in extending life, but intolerable and morally abhorrent when we act to speed the patient to his or her unavoidable death? In this paper I am going to argue that active euthanasia should become legal in certain circumstances. To do this I will argue that, in the situation of terminal illness, active euthanasia allows for the patient to end the suffering and should therefore be permissible. Secondly, I will examine a case where someone has survived a life-changing accident and wishes they had given a choice to live or die. Perhaps the most important issue at hand is the patient's right, willingness, and desire to die. For the most part, any random, healthy individual would most likely be unable to imagine or comprehend the type of pain and anguish that a terminal illness will cause. Therefore, the decision to live or die under the presence of certain, and probably painful, death should be left in the hands of the individual that is suffering. Taking its name from a Greek term meaning "the good or easy death," euthanasia should represent exactly that. The decision to live or die does not belong