Arguments Against Euthanasia And Physician Assisted Suicide

Death by Doctor Tony Nicklinson suffered from locked-in syndrome for seven years, caused by a stroke in 2005. He was unable to speak, to eat, or move, but remained fully conscious. “Imagine if you can, your worst nightmare. Then make it worse-and you’re nowhere near it” (Nicklinsons 6). Nicklinson wanted his doctors to end his misery, but legally they could not. He refused his medication, food, and the advice of his doctors and died from pneumonia on August 22, 2012. Before he died he told his family “Don’t mourn me, I’m already dead” (Nicklinson 1). In response to Assisted Suicide, various sources propose better pain management, physician assisted death (P.A.D.), or legal euthanization. Euthanasia is the painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease “The Netherlands, being the first country to legalize euthanization, has more than doubled their euthanized population by 2009” (Carthrite 3).

People all over the world fly to many different places trying to find a doctor who will put them out of their misery. Traveling like this causes a person to go through more pain than they need. The problem exists in the countries that don’t have legal P.A.D. and can’t help their patients find comfort. Giving the patients the ability to choose when and how they die makes them feel more in-control of their illness and gives them more willpower. Legal euthanasia in more than four countries would help those people who are terminally ill, the people who go through so much pain and suffering. “Furthermore, it is argued that we ourselves have an obligation to relive the suffering of our fellow human beings and to respect their dignity” (Andre and Velasquez par