Реферат: Euthanasia Essay Research Paper EuthanasiaOne of the

anyway? All these factors should come into play when deciding whether a patient

should consider euthanasia. The doctor’s answers to these questions may differ from

those of the patient and his or her family. It is up to the patient’s doctor to

decide whether the patient’s ailment is indeed curable. The patient should be presented

with the facts. The doctor should tell the patient exactly how it is and not project the

false hope that the patient may recover. With this information, the patient can make an

informed decision and feel that it is the best one. Sidney Hook states in his “In

Defense of Voluntary Euthanasia” that “Each one should be permitted to make his

own choice-especially when no one else is harmed by it. The responsibility for the

decision, whether deemed wise or foolish, must be with the chooser” . This is

evidenced quite simply by the mere fact that everyone has civil rights and liberties. No

one can decide who should die and who should not. Those who we do not let die are

forced to suffer, is that what we really want? Everyone is in complete control

of his/her own life and should be free to decide.

After considering the arguments in favor of euthanasia, the person should also look at the arguments against it. First, should the person go into a hospice program instead and receive not only first-class pain management but also comfort care and personal attention? Put simply, hospices make the best of a bad job, and they do so with great skill and love. The right-to-die movement supports their work, but not everyone wants a lingering death and not everyone wants that form of care. My family looked into local hospices for my grandfather but he decided against it. Today many terminally ill people take the marvelous benefits of home hospice programs and still accelerate the end when suffering becomes too much, this is what my family chose for my grandfather. A few hospice leaders claim that their care is so perfect that there is absolutely no need for anyone to consider euthanasia. While I have no wish to criticize them, they are wrong to claim this. Most terminal pain can today be controlled with the sophisticated use of drugs, but the point these leaders miss is that personal quality of one’s live is foremost to some people. If one’s body has been destroyed by disease to the point that it is not worth living than that is an intensely individual decision, which should not be swayed. In some cases of the final days in hospice care, when the pain is very serious, the patient is drugged into unconsciousness. Is that not the same as euthanasia? If that way is acceptable to the patient, then so be it, but some people do not wish their final hours to be in that fashion. There should be no conflict between hospice and euthanasia, both are valid options in a caring society. Both are appropriate to different people with differing values.

The other point to consider when talking about euthanasia is personal religious values. Does suffering glorify a person before death as some religions believe? Is suffering, as related to Jesus Christ’s suffering on the cross, a part of the preparation for meeting God? Some people see it that way and for that reason object to euthanasia. Remember that there are millions of atheists, as well as people of differing religions, and they all have rights, too. Many Christians who believe in euthanasia justify it by reasoning that the God whom they worship is loving and tolerant, and would not wish to see them in agony. They do not see their God as being so vengeful as refusing them the Kingdom of Heaven if they shorten the end of their life to avoid prolonged, unbearable suffering. I personally feel that if there is a God he would find no fault in man for attempting to relieve his own pain. A doctor should not be allowed to “play God” and decide who should live and who should die. It is the patient’s life and he or she has to live it, no one else knows their pain. So, it is only logical to allow the patient, and no one else, to decide.

There is another argument that ending a life short of its natural death is robbing the person of valuable time spent with family and friends. Is that last period of love and companionship with family and friends worth hanging on for? Not if it is at the expense of one suffering unbearably pain. Even the most determined supporters of euthanasia hang on until the last minute; sometimes too long, and lose control. They, too, gather with their families and friends to say goodbyes. There are important reunions and often farewell parties. Euthanasia supporters enjoy life and love living, and their respect life is as strong as anybody’s. Yet they are willing, if their dying is distressing to them, to give up a few weeks or a few days at the very end and leave under their own control. Ultimately, the decision lies with the beholder. It is the right of a person to make his/her own choice, with some limitations. It is the doctor’s responsibility to provide the patient with an accurate prognosis so that the patient may make an educated decision. Everyday we fill our lives with a thousand distractions, we always known that death awaits us as the natural end of the precious gift of life. The day we receive a terminal prognosis we enter completely unknown territory. No one wants to die. To know that we are to die soon is to confront our doubts, our fears, our deep attachments, and our own powerlessness. The task placed before us, with terminal illness, is the challenge of finding the courage to face death’s mystery. Why should we make a human being have to suffer more than necessary, who is to say that a person is not allowed to do with their body, and their lives as they choose? By doing this, the people who do not allow, and do not want euthanasia to be practiced are playing God more than anyone. Forcing patients to suffer until the very end when they finally just give up. Euthanasia is an act to help a suffering person die in peace, and after living through a situation where I saw first hand how much suffering one can endure I wish it upon no one .