Persuasive Speech Against Euthanasia

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Recommended: Advantages and disadvantages of euthanasia

I’d like to begin by telling you a story about a lady by the name of Valery Joy Brooks, once a great nurse and loving mother of four girls. In 1984 Valery suffered from an aneurysm of the frontal and temporal lobes (a.k.a a stroke) that left her completely paralysed except for autonomous movements such as breathing and blinking. For the first twelve years of my life, I watched my nan, Valery, cruelly await the end of her suffering. In 2008, Valery finally passed away after 24 long and arduous years of being stuck in a bed, watching the world move on without her. For these reasons I will be talking to you today about why Australia should legalise Euthanasia for terminally ill patients.

According to the Apple Dictionary, Euthanasia is the painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease or in an irreversible coma. Notice the key word? Suffering. People having to live with unbearable torture, wether it be pain, paralysis, neurodegenerative diseases or other causes that make their life a living hell, not to mention the torment that the families go through as they watch their loved slowly wither away. Currently, if people from Australia wish to be euthanised, they are forced to travel to Switzerland where they endure a long and extremely expensive wait for the possible green light to leave this world, that is, if they have the required money.Through emirates airlines, flights to Zurich, Switzerland start at approximately $2500 per ticket, not to mention the accommodation and the price of the procedure itself. That means forking out at least two and a half grand for each additional loved one that wishes to accompany you. So I ask, why, when only 12% of Australians are against the legalisation of euthanasia,...

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... life? Why does our Government get to pick and choose who lives or dies? A basic human right is choice. It seems this is something we don’t have considering 85% of Australians support the legalisation of assisted suicide yet the bill is nowhere near becoming an act.

Imagine being debilitated and in crippling amounts of pain for years on end Although this topic represents a difficult moral and ethical minefield, if proper safeguards are in place, where people must select their preferences regarding euthanasia before the occurrence of an incapacitating disease and extremely severe consequences for people who try to abuse the system of euthanasia, then we can eliminate all the relevant arguments presented by the opposition. This means that there are no logical reasons as to why we shouldn’t respect a person’s right to their own life, and to do with it what they please.

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