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Katherine Morton
Caruso
UWRT 1103
November 12, 2015
Euthanasia Legalization: Stop the Madness
As I dive deeper into the debate regarding the legalization of euthanasia, I have found
that the true conversation does not lie within the boundaries of dying patients but instead extends
to people who would utilize the law though they are not terminally ill. The issue with legalizing
euthanasia is that difficulties arise when trying to develop a single, generalized standard for who
is allowed to utilize euthanasia because each case is unique. Ideally, a euthanasia law would
cover every ethical reason for mercy killing without giving aid to those who do not need access
to the law. This creates a sticky situation for whoever lawmakers who create and enforce such
guidelines because this very fine line can be interpreted and misinterpreted in many different
ways.
Todays controversy regarding euthanasia has been falsely perceived by the public up to
this point, those fighting to legalize it have tunnel vision towards saving the sick from painful
last days and overlook what effects legalization might have on the healthy or mentally ill. The
goal of my Inquiry Product is to put in simple terms what is likely to happen if legalization of
euthanasia occurs using what journalist Winston Ross calls the snowball effect (5). I wish to
show euthanasia supporters of cities considering legalization that I also believe it is ethical to
stop a terminal illness before nature takes its course but that the number of patients that will truly
be helped is only a small piece of a much larger picture. A flyer is most beneficial because it

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allow me to communicate more information than a poster does but has the potential to get to the
same audience very quickly by catching attention.
At the top of the flyer you will see a small snowball being pushed by a cancer patient,
this is Brittany Maynard. Brittany is 29-year-old, newlywed who chose to end her life through
the means of euthanasia after a long fought battle with stage 4 glioblastoma. (Briggs par. 2) I
chose her to represent what I consider a small snowball because she is very well known and was
in fact extremely ill before her time of death by assisted suicide. I hope that by using such an
influential figure the viewers of this flyer will know that I am on their side as well and that they
will welcome the other information presented with an open mind.
As for the second snowball presented, I have chosen to depict a blind woman who claims
that losing her vision has diminished her quality of life. As she molds the meaning of quality of
life the reader gets a glimpse of the law expanding to meet the needs of the public. As the use of
euthanasia increases, it attempts to cater to everyone but the act of dying may be taking it to an
extreme. Dassalar, of The Lancet, blames the lack of inadequate good treatments for the sick
for the sudden increase in euthanasia. For instance, if this newly blind woman could be offered
some sort of aid, possibly a treatment to prolong complete blindness and low vision products,
death would not be so prevalent on her mind.
People of our society are consumed with the fear of dying causing the push for the
legalization of euthanasia to skyrocket. Critics often refer to euthanasia as bargain hunting
because it spares them the fear of the unknown (Warren). Though you could possibly argue this
as a good thing, allowing people an easy way out of life itself diminishes the drive within them

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to create their own desirable life. Humankind will have absolutely nothing left if they can not
find hope within themselves.
This leads me to the largest snowball, depicting a healthy person who has given up all
hope on life asking the government to approve what could easily be argued as suicide. I based
the idea of this snowball off of a couple from Canada, Betty and George Columbias. After
George was diagnosed with a heart disease Betty decided that she could not go on without him.
Together they requested permission from the Canadian government to commit simultaneous
suicide through the means of euthanasia. Whether or not you consider Betty Columbias to be
insane, she is abusing the term euthanasia as well as the term quality of life (Assisted Suicide
Laws in the U.S. and Abroad).
Having quality of life does not translate to perfection. Both the blind woman and Betty
Columbias have molded what terminology is used to defend the act of euthanasia into what is
now suicide. Society continues to push the envelope to the point that scholars have suggested
doing away with the word euthanasia all together in hopes of eliminating the multiple meanings
it has acquired. The word itself sells Warrens idea of bargain hunting literally translating into
good death or to bring about good death given the choice, nobody would want to die a bad
death over a good one. To top it off we combine the word euthanasia with adjectives to make it
fit our situation, for instance, active (or traditional) euthanasia is the act of killing a patient while
passive euthanasia is simply withholding necessary treatment for a patient to live (Kuiper,
Michael, Leslie Whetstine, John Holmes, Stephen Streat, Richard Burrows, Ian Seppelt, and
David Crippen).
Legalization of euthanasia will be like opening up a can of worms in the sense that it will
evoke an ever expanding standard. Nothing is perfect. If our society is lead to believe that an

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imperfect life is not worth living, all happiness will be diminished. By legalizing euthanasia, the
government communicates to the public that choosing death is okay and they identify the
challenges of life as negative. Overcoming life's challenges are what make it worth living, it
gives us a purpose. Euthanasia however gives us the simple option to opt out of these challenges,
in turn removing all value from life itself.

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Works Cited
Original
"Assisted Suicide Laws in the U.S. and Abroad." Frontline. WGBH Educational Foundation,
1995. Web. 2015.
Briggs, Bill. "Brittany Maynard's Death: Why Is Brain Cancer So Lethal." NBC News.
NBCNews, 4 Nov. 2014. Web. 2015.
Ross, Winston. "Dying Dutch: Euthanasia Spreads Across Europe." Newsweek. Newsweek,
2015. Web. 2015.

Updated
Dasselaar, N., F. Boersma, J. Langue, and M. Somerville. "Euthanasia." The Lancet 345.8959
(1995). Print.
Kuiper, Michael, Leslie Whetstine, John Holmes, Stephen Streat, Richard Burrows, Ian Seppelt,
and David Crippen. "Euthanasia: A Word No Longer to Be Used or Abused." Intensive Care
Medicine 33.3 (2006): 549-50. Web. 2015.
Warren, J. "Euthanasia." (2015). Web. 2015.