Defense Of Voluntary Euthanasia example essay topic

A white flash of lightening catches the glint of frantic black eyes peering from beneath frazzled grey hair. Screaming to his assistant, the frenzied scientist paces before the lifeless body on the table; his creation. As the creaking chains raise the corpse out of the roofless laboratory, the scientist's evil laugh echoes up into night sky. This scene, often replayed in old films, captures the horror of unrestricted medical research. When a person who is ill decides that it is his or her time to die, they are, in effect, playing God by taking control of human life by deciding when it should end. Sidney Hook, an octogenarian, suffered to the point of requesting, but not receiving, his own extermination.

In his article, In Defense of Voluntary Euthanasia, Hook argues that euthanasia provides an easy way to end suffering. Examining the pros and cons of euthanasia and its usefulness if legalized, it is clear that there are very few benefits involved. When death is made a legal and easy option, it is an attempt to take full control of life and, by doing so, opening the door to more abuse than benefits. Euthanasia is the practice of putting to death persons who have incurable, painful, or distressing diseases or handicaps. It is commonly called mercy killing. Voluntary euthanasia may occur when individuals who are incurably ill ask their physician to put them to death or the patient may ask a doctor to withhold treatment, allowing them to die more rapidly.

Many opponents of euthanasia contend that too often doctors and others in the medical profession play God on operating tables and in recovery rooms. They argue that no medical professional should be allowed to decide who lives and who dies. This is true. The time when a person dies is a decision only God should make. On the other hand, why would anyone want to keep a person who is desiring death from making that choice? Seneca, a well-known philosopher once said, "The wise man will live as long as he ought, not as long as he can" (qty. in Hook 484).

A considerable amount of society is in favor of euthanasia mostly because they feel that we, as free individuals, should have the right to decide for ourselves when to terminate life, especially when an individual is suffering from an incurable disease. No one wants to end up plugged into machines and wired to tubes. However, as euthanasia is an irreversible decision, it should not be left to someone whose mind has been altered by medication, pain, or depression. Life still has meaning, even when seen through the eyes of suffering. Although the benefits of euthanasia include ending pain, misery, and humiliation, there are many other medical issues that would arise if euthanasia were to be legalized. There would be reduced pressure to improve treatment that aid the sick and dying.

The bettering of terminal care that we currently see is a result of attempts made to minimize suffering. If that suffering had been wiped out by euthanizing the patients who bore it, then we may never have known the advances in the control of symptoms that the last twenty years have seen. Some diseases that were once considered hopeless are now curable using new treatments. Earlier acceptance of euthanasia might well have slowed research which led to the discovery of those treatments. Hook claims that "one should be permitted to make his own choice... when no one else is harmed by it" (485). If we accept euthanasia, we are inviting harmful delays in the discovery of effective treatments for those diseases that are now terminal.

As individuals and as a society, we have the positive obligation to protect life. Once any group of human beings is considered unworthy of living, what is to stop our society from extending this cruelty to other groups? By allowing euthanasia to invade our culture, we take away potential advances from medicine, and we ultimately take away God's authority to control life and death. Hook states that, "The responsibility... must be with the chooser" (485).

Although it is true that everyone has the right to make choices in his or her own life, the chooser must also take into consideration the effect that his choice will have on others. Work Cited Hook, Sidney. "In Defense of Voluntary Euthanasia". New York Times. Op-ed. 1 March 1987.

Rpt. in Elements of Argument: A Text and Reader. 6th Ed. Annette T. Rotten burg Ed. Boston; Bedford, 2000.483-485.