Euthanasia can be defined as a medical method which is always implemented on the patients who suffer from very serious illnesses, in order to allow them to die without any pain. This medical strategy has developed and is already used for some pets in western countries. However it is a controversial issue whether it is proper and humane to use, especially for ending human’s lives. This essay will explain the advantage and disadvantage of euthanasia. This essay will raise the ideas of relieving extreme pain, protecting human rights and freeing up medical funds to support the positive side. Meanwhile, it will also discuss the disadvantage that euthanasia devalues humans life.
First of all, the most obvious reason of using euthanasia is to allow the patients to free themselves from extreme pain and hopeless life. According to Moral Issues that Divide Us by James Fieser, a man named Bob had stomach cancer and was finally unable to manage it after an unceasing treatment for three years. “During his final months he was vomiting blood, lost about half his body weight, was incapable of walking, and experienced a degree of pain that he never had before. ” He decided to end his life ahead of time as he had foreseen his intolerable consequence at the end of his life. Since euthanasia was illegal, he had prepared drugs and a gun to end himself, but he was too weak to even use them. He begged people around him to kill him, but nobody wanted to assist because of fear for taking the potential responsibility of murdering. He finally died tragically in his bed. This example shows that the extreme pain caused by illnesses is even more horrible than death. There are hundreds of patients all over the world who are seriously disabled and are suffering a lot. Most of them are tormented to the extent that they just want to die to relieve, just like what Bob wanted to do. However, because of either having no ability or having no courage, these patients are alive, but having the consequence that remaining alive is no better than to die. And euthanasia is the only and the best way to handle the problem since it can make the patients die comfortably. That is why relieving pain is one of the most remarkable label for euthanasia.
Another advantage is that euthanasia respects and protects human rights, specifically, the right to choose to be alive or not. Peter Singer, an Australian philosopher, had a famous thesis to support euthanasia. “A rational person with ‘an irreversible condition causing protracted physical or mental suffering’ who chooses to waive the right to life should be assisted in ending his or her life”. He gave this reason based on these two principles. The first one is that right is different from responsibility. Right can be chosen to take or not. So people do have the right to “give up their rights”. The other one is that people should respect for autonomy. People should not disturb anyone else to do as they choose. The point of view from...
