Euthanasia - Dr. Jack Kevorkian

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Euthanasia - Dr. Jack Kevorkian

Is euthanasia murder or is it actually saving someone from extra pain and suffering? This is just one of the questions that are causing so much debate in our society today. Should euthanasia be illegal?

Is it right that a person has to suffer through three months of life support before they die just because the law says that even though a person is going to die soon that it is wrong to help them end their suffering because that would be considered murder. Many people believe that euthanasia should be legalized. This has caused a lot of controversy in today’s society especially with religious organizations. Almost all churches claim that nobody has the right to take another persons life away except for god himself. Many people who are against the idea of euthanasia say that the only pain that is lessened is that of the loved ones, the pain of worrying about the sick and paying their bills. Those people also state that euthanasia has many more bad side effects in the long run. They believe that people would kill their parents faster just to get rid of them or to claim the insurance money sooner. Others say that euthanasia prevents people to see the value of suffering which may be something that god is trying to teach to all of us, if we commit euthanasia then we are turning are backs on god.

Many people try to compare euthanasia with suicide but the fact remains that they are two totally different things and are carried out under extremely different circumstances. One author of a book about euthanasia stated that "Just as our society discourages suicide, it should discourage euthanasia because in both the person is running away from life and its responsibilities" (143). This is an example...

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...asia. Most of us have been brought up learning that it is wrong to kill another human being. But the fact is that euthanasia just does not go along with our way of living and our religions as it does in other areas of the world. Maybe if we were to have been brought up in some other area of the world we would have a different opinion about euthanasia but for know, for most of us, our religions and our morals say that euthanasia is the wrong thing to do.

- Gavin, Fairbairn J. CONTEMPLATING SUICIDE: The language and ethics of self harm. New

York: Routledge, 1995.

- Grollman, Earl A. SUICIDE. Boston: Beacon Press, 1988.

- Long, Robert Emmet. "SUICIDE." THE REFERENCE SHELF 67.2 (1995): 20-8.

- Shneidman, Edwin S., et al. Clues to Suicide. New York: McGraw-Hill , 1957.

- Stengel, Erwin. Suicide and Attempted Suicide. Maryland: Penguin Books, 1971.

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