Euthanasia
The Right To Live VS. The Right to Die Even with today's medical marvels and vast advances in pain medication, people are still forced to suffer through death. For some, death is a long, drawn-out, and painful experience for themselves and for those who love them. Euthanasia, also called physician-assisted death, can take away all the unnecessary pain felt by a terminally ill patient in their last few months. The right to die, or death with dignity, is a publicly known controversy that has a large amount of questions and too few answers. The people who are effected most by choosing euthanasia is the doctor, the family of the patient, and the patient themselves. Doctors agree with the use of euthanasia two to one. The doctor is the one person who is with the patient through out the entirety of their medical battles. Physicians know better then anyone else the pain that can be caused and felt in the last few months. They act as councilors and are told the pain the patient is feeling. They know that pain medications don't always work. Dr. Cecil McIver turns a physicians choice of physician-assisted death into three different considerations. She says, "Firstly, a doctor must always act in his patients
What you choose to do with your opinion is your choice. " (Goodman, 627) Spring's family felt that if his life had taken this turn ten or fifteen years ago, the medical advances made just recently would not have been there to save his life. A machine may allow one to live a few months longer, and pain medication may numb you. While the decision of euthanasia is up to you, the one thing other than the pain that you think about is their well-being. ' Euthanasia deeply affects not just one person, but also the family, the doctors, and all of society. They are the ones who will take care of you and make sure you are always in as little of pain as possible. Why is it morally wrong to ease the pain of the dying? Each case, like the Earl Spring case, is different. Thirdly, if the doctor agrees with his patient that dying is in the latter's best interest, it becomes his obligation to provide assistance. Maybe one cannot take "comfort in knowing that there are layers upon layers of bureaucracy one must hurdle before winning 'the right' to die. He was in and out of consciousness and never really made much sense. In one case, a man named Earle Spring was wheel chair bound and spent five hours, three times a week connected to a machine. " (Golway, 630) A patient can, however, take comfort in knowing that they have the 'right to die. The terminally ill are given a choice to be treated, or to leave the hospital and let themselves die.
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