Euthanasia Exploratory Essay

As Von Sydow said in A life in need of “neither protection nor preservation”, “One mother’s greatest fear is that her child with Down’s syndrome will be left alone with no one to look after him or her when the mother dies. Another mother says openly, according to Bard, that she wants to outlive her son with Down’s syndrome for just one day, so she can know a single day in freedom.” (2014). The key point of the article is that euthanasia is being used for children with Down’s syndrome who are thought to be the ones suffering; however it is in fact the parents who are suffering. The topic of euthanasia is important to the audience in order to inform them on what euthanasia means as well as what it means to agree to perform it. Before deciding

A slippery slope is an action or suggestion that will lead to something unexpected and catastrophic to occur. The other two types of euthanasia are voluntary and involuntary euthanasia. Voluntary euthanasia is when the procedure is performed with the consent of the patient, while involuntary euthanasia is when the procedure is performed without their consent. The concern most people have is that if voluntary euthanasia is legal, then it will not be long before involuntary euthanasia will as well be legalized. Some countries, such as Belgium, have already gotten a head start on involuntary euthanasia. “Already in parts of Belgium one in three cases of euthanasia is involuntary and half go unreported. And there has been not one prosecution for abuses in the last ten years – perhaps because the one of the lead euthanasia practitioners – Distelmans – chairs the very committee that is meant to regulate his activity. (Saunders, 2013)” Moreover, some US states, such as Oregon, would rather pay for a patients’ euthanasia than to pay for treatment that has a possibility of prolonging their lives. “I’ll leave it to my colleagues to expand on the details but notable are two people with cancer – Randy Stroup and Barbara Wagner – who were told that the Oregon Health Authority would not pay for their chemotherapy but would happily pay for their assisted suicide.

In addition, they believe that euthanasia would be the sensible thing to do, since they have the right to choose how their lives are handled. This is due to the fact that, since it is assisted-suicide that is being performed, they would have professionals by their side to help them through the process. A survey showed that 66 percent of cases in Oregon, U.S.A perform euthanasia due to the requests of patients because they no longer wanted to be a burden to their loved ones (2011). Admittedly, it is true that it is the patients’ choice on whether or not to perform euthanasia, and they cannot be denied the right to die. However, some of the patients may have a terminal illness or may be an elder suffering from an incurable disease, making them unqualified to make life-threatening decisions. While they may have a right to die; they also have a right to live, and that right cannot be taken away solely because they possess a birth defect or an illness. In addition, with euthanasia as an option, they are ruling out the fact that there is always a possibility of a miracle to occur. That possibility would be utterly rejected when the decision to implement euthanasia is