Yamashita 1

Justice Yamashita

Mr. Smith

Writing for College Section 2

24 January 2018

Life or Death: Is Euthanasia the Right Way to Go

Section I: Introduction

In November 23, 2013, Landa Van Roy, the mother of a terminally ill child named Ella-

Louise. Ella-Louise at the age of ten-months-old died because of a rare disease called Krabbe

disease. The daughter went through excruciating pain because doctors decided it would be best

to not give any fluids and the doctors and parents ended up not feeding her and she starved.

Landa Van Roy said, “She wishes she could have administered a fatal dose of medication to

make the end of her daughter’s short life come more quickly.” Landa Van Roy experienced and

was traumatized after watching her daughter go through excruciating pain and could do nothing

but watch her die in agony.

Euthanasia is a serious political, moral and ethical issue in today’s society. Euthanasia is

the painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable disease and is illegal in most

countries, and also known as mercy killing or assisted suicide. This issue affects millions of

families and doctors around the world with terminally ill diseases or irreversible comas.

Should physician-assisted suicide be legalized? Physician-assisted suicide spares the

agony of friends and relatives of watching relatives deteriorate over time. Euthanasia helps the

terminally ill avoid excruciating pain and leaving a person with an incurable disease on a

machine can be expensive.

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Terminally ill patients have fatal diseases and will never recover. After reading nine

articles, I support and believe that we should take the time and legalize the use of euthanasia.

Should we allow terminally ill patients to go through excruciating pain? Should we deny

patients that are in complete suffering an easier and less painful death? These questions lead to

controversy and are strongly debated throughout many countries. Euthanasia gives the

terminally ill the chance and allows patients to choose to die from physician-assisted suicide.

Euthanasia gives patients a chance to avoid excruciating pain, spares the agony of friends and

relatives, and leaving a terminally ill person on a machine can be expensive.

Section II: Euthanasia Helps the Terminally Ill Avoid Excruciating Pain

Could you bear watching a loved one or relative deteriorate and die in excruciating pain

over time? Most of us especially parents can’t bear to see people we love and care about as

much as get hurt by a little scratch or bruise. The use of euthanasia is what can help and save

those from experiencing excruciating pain. In “Offering a Choice to the Terminally Ill,” the

Editorial Board states a case, “last year, the radio host Diane Rehm watched in agony as her

husband John, starved to death over the course of 10 days.” Diane Rehm had to witness and

watch her husband starve to death because of Parkinson’s Disease. Because of the ban of the use

of euthanasia there was no choice for her husband, except to go through excruciating pain and

eventually die. Diane Rehm states, “for him to go out that way, not being able to do anything for

himself, was an insufferable indignity.” In today’s world with many incurable diseases, the use

of euthanasia in order to avoid excruciating pain for terminally ill patients is a great debate in

recent years.

To get a good understanding of how euthanasia is described and used according to

Francis Bacon which was in the 17th century he described euthanasia as “an easy, painless, happy
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death, during it was a physician’s responsibility to alleviate the physical sufferings of the body.”

In the United Kingdom voluntary euthanasia or assisted suicide can lead to imprisonment of up

to 14 years. Because of the amount of time there is for imprisonment, few doctors actually use

euthanasia or physician assisted suicide. If people that are terminally ill want to stop the

suffering there should be no reason why doctors should be punished for helping their patient.

Some reasons why euthanasia is banned throughout the world is because of religious

purposes that we should live the gift God has given us and live life to the fullest. Also doctors

are suppose to save lives not hasten death. The process of doctors killing patients is breaking a

Hippocratic Oath. Another reason euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide is banned because it

can be used in the wrong ways such as in 1999, Dr. Jack Kevorkian, he was convicted of murder

and was supposedly a notorious advocate of assisted suicide. Dr. Jack Kevorkian was convicted

for aiding dozens of patients that were not terminally ill and ended their lives. But even though

all these reasons above may contradict every reason to legalize euthanasia, euthanasia can also

be used for good in order to save those that are suffering almost similar to pulling the plug on

loved ones. Because the main question is would you be willing to end someone’s life in order to

stop them from suffering? Even though God has given the gift of life and take it to the fullest we

should not have to suffer and die in agony or pain. Doctor’s are suppose to save lives, but

shouldn’t they do what they can and help the patient suffer less. Euthanasia used with the right

people, the right time, and trusted with the right doctors can be used to help terminally ill

patients end all suffering and pain.

Today society there is so many incurable diseases in the world. In “Other People’s Lives:

Reflections on Medicine, Ethics, and Euthanasia,” Richard Fenigsen gives his opinion on

Alzheimer’s disease by saying “and let’s not forget the terrible scourge of Alzheimer’s disease.
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Do any of us want to end our lives with the paralyzing fear and anxiety and the complete loss of

one’s mental faculties?” A scourge is a great suffering. This is a rhetorical question because no

one ever wants to be living in fear until the finally comes where this disease takes over and ends

up killing us. No one wants to live with Alzheimer’s disease and need help in everyday task that

we do. Alzheimer’s may not make the patient go through excruciating pain, but after seeing

cases of patients on Alzheimer’s disease and witnessing my great grandma that disease is truly

terrifying. Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive disease that destroys memory and other

important mental functions. My great grandma is unable to talk, remember, or eat on her own,

it’s sickening and sad that she can’t do the simple things in life and is practically be forced to

live. She is forced to eat and someone has to help her chew her food and force to swallow her

food. She doesn’t remember anything and sits as time goes by. There are cases far worse than

death, and this is one of them. Do any of us want to end up like this, where we grow old and

can’t do the simple things in life that we enjoy, and wait until we die?

This disease may not cause pain, but mentally destroys someone to the point where they

don’t know how to feed themselves and need to be force fed in order to survive. This disease is

quite sickening by watching someone you love and care about and just wait knowing there is

nothing you can do besides wait for them to deteriorate and eventually die. But since the strict

laws and ban of euthanasia this leaves those with Alzheimer’s disease no choice, but wait until

the time they die.

However, even though euthanasia is banned in most states, physician-assisted suicide is

legal in few states such as Washington DC, California, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont,

Washington, and in Montana it is being disputed. In 2014 Brittany Maynard, a twenty-nine

year old woman from California moved to Oregon after learning she had incurable brain cancer.
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Ms. Maynard moved in order to die on her own terms. Some people like Ms. Maynard takes

matter into her own hands and moves just die. Should we force people to move to another

country, state, or city just to die?

Section III: Physician Assisted- Suicide Spares the Agony of Friends and Relatives

Imagine yourself unable to hear, unable to see, unable to walk, and can barely breathe let

alone walk on your own. You lived a great life all those years before. But now you’re in such

unbearable pain, that you can’t even cry. You can no longer complete such simple tasks before,

and need to be aided in everything that you do. Now imagine that happening to someone you

know and care about. Picture the agony and sorrow they feel as this monster inside slowly kills

them. As you watch them struggle in unbearable pain no matter how much medicine you give

them. In today’s world millions of people witness friends and relatives die in agony as they

watch helplessly as a terminal disease kills them to their last breath.

Everyone deserves to choose they want to live. No one has the right to tell someone how

to neither live their life nor end it. Neither do the people have to experience watching someone

they care about struggle in pain and agony and eventually die. Millions of people throughout the

world watch people we love and care about get terminally ill disease or irreversible comas and

eventually die. Terminally ill patients should be able to have a choice in their life, not be barred

by so disease that is taking over their life. No one should have to wait until the last second

where the disease kills them, nor should anyone be forced to take medicine to prolong their death.

Even though the outcome is a mystery on whether they will live or die, doctors shouldn’t have to

face such harsh consequences. Everyone has the right to choose life or death.

In “Parents Plead to be able to Help Terminally Ill Children Die,” a mother, Landa Van

Roy experienced her daughter die because of Krabbe disease. A mother loves their child with all
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their heart and wants the best for them no matter what. Most children will understand the

mothers care and love, and we can understand the sorrow and hate. The fact that mothers are

always there for them and always support them, a mother shouldn’t have to watch their child die

in excruciating pain. Landa Van Roy had to experience as she watched her daughter die in

agony because of this rare disease. Landa Van Roy reacted and said, “she died on Tuesday; on

Monday, we saw on her face that she was still in pain. And then you start to get angry, because

you know there is no medication left to give her to take away the pain.” Because of the ban of

euthanasia this led a traumatizing event for Landa Van Roy. She had to experience her daughter

starve to death. As we can tell here by Landa Van Roy’s reaction that she is utterly pissed and

angry that there was no other way to help her daughter, but watch as she simply died of

starvation. We humans can be hurt so easily by words, rumors, but having to watch someone

suffer and eventually die right before your eyes and know there is nothing that you can do

besides sit and watch is the worst feeling to ever experience and have. Landa Van Roy the

mother of Ella-Louise finally said, she wishes she could have administered a fatal dose of

medication to make the end of her daughter’s short life come more quickly. The reasons why

Landa Van Roy had to experience this is because of religious purposes, a Hippocratic Oath

doctor’s receive, and if a doctor did provide a lethal dose of medication that doctor would be

barred because of the use of euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide. The fear of doctors being

barred for 14 years can be quite a toll on someone for helping someone end their suffering and

pain.

An article called “Let Patients Die in Dignity” written by Nadia Cohen, shows Doctor

Hilary Jones point of view of giving people a fatal dose of medicine to help those that are

terminally ill or experiencing excruciating pain and the reactions of relatives that are terminally
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ill. Doctor Hilary Jones said from experience, “I personally have been in the situation where a

patient and the family have looked at me and begged, can’t you do something about this

intolerable suffering?” Doctor Hilary Jones has given many patients the chance to have a “good

death”, where there is no pain and in order to stop the patient from suffering. Jones uses

Diamorphine knowing that it will hasten death, but his intents are not to kill, but to end the

family and the patient from suffering. Diamorphine is also known as Heroin which is an most

commonly used as a recreational drug, and medically is used to relieve pain. Doctor Jones

understands that this dose of medicine or drug will kill the patient, but he believes this is almost

similar to pets by saying, “if your pet was in agony, with no prospect of recovery, would you

humanely end its misery? If so, why have qualms about ending the unremitting torture of the

person you most loved?” He asks this rhetorical question because most families if their pet is

suffering and in agony with no chance of recovery most families will put an end to its misery.

So why should we keep those we love and care about suffer and be tortured by this incurable

disease? Doctor Jones is a supporter of the use of euthanasia and not only helps patients and

families end suffering, but believes that everyone has a choice in life whether they want to live or

not.

Section 4: Trying to Save a Terminally Ill Person can be Expensive

Assisted suicide for the terminally ill saves medical bills which are another reason to

support the use of assisted suicide. Since medical bills are so high, the decisions and choices we

make in order to keep someone alive and make them go through all that suffering can lead to

bankrupties. The fact that millions of people around the world must pay tens and thousands of

dollars, to keep someone that they care about alive is heartbreaking. Everyone around the world

never wants to be a burden to anyone especially emotionally and financially to their family.
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Giving the terminally ill the choice to use euthanasia or assisted suicide will lift the financial

burden off families and help them in the long run.

Throughout the world many families suffer because of the cost of hospital bills. There

are a variety of opinions because of the special bond that people have with people, but in the

long run it affects the patient’s relatives and families. According to “Hospital Costs: How Much

to Stay,” Shawn Radcliffe says the average cost to stay in per night at a hospital is around $1,500

for basic care, not including the cost of specialized care or the use of special equipment. Just for

a day is rather expensive, but imagine the cost to keep someone alive for months or years, that

can lead to so much debt for that person. Shawn Radcliffe states a case where Chiles Adkins’

82-year-old wife lived in a nursing home in a coma for four years. Adkins was billed $250,000

for his wife’s medical care.

This may seems unfair to the family that killing someone they love will help them a lot

more than trying their absolute best to keep them alive. Medicine has improved throughout the

ages. We will do anything to keep anyone alive, but the fact is some things can’t be fixed. In the

“Cost of Keeping the Terminally Ill Alive,” Richard Meyer, says “Modern medicine has become

so good at keeping the terminally ill alive by treating the complications of underlying disease

that the inevitable process of dying has become much harder and is often prolonged

unnecessarily.” Medicine has become so much more advanced throughout the world, but yet

some diseases can’t be cured. Should we pay for medicine that will just prolong someone to live

for a little while longer? Should we leave someone on a machine and hope in a couple of years

and months that they will eventually recover? No one can ever tell the future or outcome of what

may happen, but after years and months of trying to keep someone alive, how much more money

and debt will you end up in. Should we bring back that person, and have them work their life off
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or watch their family possibly struggle to pay off their debt, lose their job, bankrupt, or become

homeless. No one ever wants to be a burden; neither do we want to lose people we love, but

shouldn’t we just do what’s best for everyone.

Section 5: Conclusion

Should we legalize the use of euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide? There are many

reasons why this is such a hard debate to decide whether or not to legalize euthanasia or

physician-assisted suicide. However, in this paper I showed three points that I feel are reasons

why we should legalize euthanasia: Euthanasia helps the terminally ill avoid excruciating pain,

physician-assisted suicide spares the agony of friends and relatives, and trying to save a

terminally ill person can be expensive.

Through this paper I have showed reasons on why we should legalize euthanasia.

Reasons why we should help them gain a choice to help them, to help their families, and to end

their suffering. There are hundreds of opinions and ideas on the legalization or ban of euthanasia,

but no one should have to go through such excruciating pain. If there is a chance to end their

suffering the terminally ill should have the choice whether they want to live or die. I chose this

topic because people that I care about have gotten incurable diseases. I was forced to watch and

witness them deteriorate over time because of Alzheimer’s disease. It was rough and hard

watching someone I love and care about eventually turn into a body, but feels like their soul has

vanished. The memories and everything I see in that person, yet that person can’t speak,

remember, walk, or eat. I watched the amount of pain and stress as someone took care of her and

the love he felt for her. This led to is there a choice or something we could give to these people

and looked online and found euthanasia. Euthanasia has many pros and cons, but the most

important thing is the decision making between the family and the patient. It hurts to imagine
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that there was nothing we could do, but force her to live. My family and I were heartbroken after

visiting her every year and that there was no choice. Together if we can figure out the pros of

euthanasia we can help other terminally ill patients and give them a voice and also a choice in

how they want to live their life or end it.

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Works Cited

David, Brown. “Paralyzed in a Scrum, Rugby Player Chose Assisted Death at Age of 23.”

Times, the (United Kingdom), n.d. EBSCOhost, 18 Oct. 2008.

http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=6&sid=849d604c-bc30-491e-927b-

584b559b6c44%40sessionmgr104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=

7EH3375978467&db=n5h. Accessed 18 November 2017.

Meyer, Richard. “The cost of keeping the terminally ill alive.” KevinMD. 16 Dec. 2010.

https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2010/12/cost-keeping-terminally-ill-alive.html.

Accessed 19 Oct. 2017.

Peter, Dornauf. “Euthanasia’s Time has Come.” Waikato Times, 26 June 2017, p. 6.

EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=n5h&AN =WKP17

062600061130201602-AP&site=ehost-live. Accessed 28 December 2017.

Radcliffe, Shawn. “Hospital Costs: How Much to Stay?” Healthline, Healthline Media, 17 July

2017, www.healthline.com/health-news/how-much-does-hospital-stay-cost#2. Accessed

12 Nov. 2017.

The Editorial Board. “Offering a Choice to the Terminally Ill.” The New York Times. 14 Mar.

2015. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/15/opinion/sunday/offering-a-choice-to-the-

terminally-ill.html. Accessed 31 Oct. 2017.