Death with Dignity

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Recommended: The debate surrounding euthanasia

In 1983 twenty-five-year old Nancy Cruzan was driving when her car careened off the road and flipped over. She was thrown out of her car into a ditched and was left lying there unconscious. Her body was victim to its surroundings and to fate. When she was found by paramedics, she was unconscious and not breathing. They concluded that she had not been breathing for at least fifteen minutes, but through the miracles of modern technology she was revived into a vegetative state (Gumm). This began a long crusade for Nancy Cruzan and her family and only added to the enduring debate about euthanasia. Should a person be able to control when to end his life? I believe that a person should control when life ends while facing a terminal illness or when death is unavoidable. In Nancy Cruzan’s circumstance, the decision of death depended upon her family. This specific situation is an example of why the debate continues. It continues to linger partly due to the fact that euthanasia covers a variety of practices.

When people are talking about euthanasia they are usually referring to one of these practices: the right to refuse treatment, passive euthanasia (under certain circumstances, family members request that life-sustaining machines or treatment be stopped for patients with little or no hope of regaining consciousness), physician-assisted suicide, or a patient may request his or her physician to administer powerful drugs such as morphine to ease unbearable pain and suffering, knowing that these drugs are also likely to bring death more quickly (Euthanasia-Reading). Nancy Cruzan was in a persistent vegetative state. After the accident, the doctors and Nancy’s family worked tirelessly to restore her to a conscious state. This continued for ...

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...ked, nor suggest any such counsel” (Collier). This will continue to be an ongoing debate and people in these situations should not have to wait extended periods of time because of gray areas in the law for a decision. I do not take euthanasia lightly, but I do believe that the choice should belong to the individual or in cases like Nancy’s to the family.

Works Cited

"ASSISTED SUICIDE LAWS STATE BY STATE." Euthanasia.com. N.p., 2011. Web. 22 Feb 2011.

Collier, P.F. "OATH OF HIPPOCRATES, Cerca 400 B.C.." 38. (1910): n. pag. Harvard Classics. Web. 22 Feb 2011.

Corbin, Clark. "Senate Panel Advances Assisted Suicide Bill." Post Register 17 Feb. 2011: A1. Print.

"Euthanasia-Reading." (2005): n. pag. Deliberating in a Democracy. Web. 22 Feb 2011.

Gumm, Carrie. "The Legacy of Nancy Cruzan." University of Virgina Health System (2004): n. pag. Web. 22 Feb 2011.

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