Pro Euthanasia

This is actually a discussion about two topics, namely euthanasia and physician-
assisted suicide. This is because, in my opinion, euthanasia should rather take place in
a hospital setting rather than at the home.

So, why would I say “Yes” to euthanasia? Well, it’s quite simple. To quote a nice Bon
Jovi song, “It’s my life”. People should have the right to decide what happens to their
lives. If they wish to end it under any circumstances and they are of sound mind, then
they should be able to do so. Most countries have already implemented euthanasia in a
sense, because there exist a thing like DNR’s. This is when a guy can say they would
rather die than to live with artificial means probably for the rest of his life. Extending this
practice to being able to say “I would rather have a single injection and die than to live
two more weeks and then die drowning in my blood in a pile of piss and shit.” seems
logical to me. The problem people have however, is usually not with this, but rather
HOW you die, which brings us to the doctors.

People are fine with people dying in crashes or due to strokes, but they don’t like the
idea of a doctor legally having permission to kill you. They think this power, if given to a
doctor, will allow him/her to kill you for “evil” reasons. For example, you might want their
organs or you might be a racist or you just get your rocks off killing people, point is, they
don’t want this power in physicians’ hands. I would argue this point by stating a lot of
legal documents would have to be filled out, but people just think the doctor will
pressure the person into signing the papers. I won’t say this viewpoint is stupid,
because it is possible. I will however, say that basing your argument solely on this slim
chance and subsequently causing a lot of sufferers with fatal diseases a lot of pain for
sure, is a bit irrational.

People also have this notion that the objective of a doctor is to save people, but I
believe that this statement is false. The actual objective of a doctor, in my opinion, is to
ensure the best quality of life, rather than just life. You see, physicians have been
around for a long time and in the past, their job was just to save people, because they
dealt with acute diseases more than chronic ones. That was quality of life. Living past
forty. Today however, we sit with a problem. We have very old people and horrible,
currently incurable diseases. As diseases have shifted more from acute to chronic, what
“quality of life” would entail, had to be redefined. In this case they might live, but it
wouldn’t be much of a life. Sometimes, the best life is one which ends. People might
disagree and state “They took an oath to do no harm!”. Well bud, maybe forcing
someone to live and die an agonizing death is doing harm.

Now that we have the whole reason why I am for it and some against it out of the way,
let’s get down to how. Now I will not be talking about euthanasia of which physician-
assisted suicide is not a part of, since I am against this type. A few requirements need
to be met and those are:

1. The patient must have a fatal disease without a cure.

2. The patient must be asked three times if they still want to commit suicide and
they must say “Yes” to all three. (I know this varies globally, the good ol’ three
just sounds like a fair number.)

3. All other options must have been given to the patient beforehand, irrelevant of
how unscientific they may be.

4. The patient must be of sound mind. (Wanting to die does not count as an
indicator of an unsound mind.)

In conclusion, if well regulated, euthanasia will ensure that people lead good quality
lives and ultimately give meaning to the right of choosing what becomes of one’s life.