The Moral Thing To Do
Euthanasia is the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering from an incurable and painful disease or in an irreversible coma. It is often looked down upon and is illegal in most places. The novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is about two farmers named George and Lennie who are going around and looking for work. Euthanasia was used in the book to end the life of an old dog and the mentally disabled man, Lennie, and these two instances demonstrated how taking a life isn’t always an immoral thing to do.
When Candy’s dog died, it demonstrated that taking a life could be merciful. When Carlson wants to kill Candy’s dog because of his stink, he is still showing mercy by relieving the
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George killed Lennie so that Curley couldn’t get his revenge. The antagonist of the book, Curley, wanted to kill Lennie and said, “‘I’m gonna shoot the guts outa that big bastard myself, even if I only got one hand. I’m gonna get ‘im,’”(Steinbeck, 98). The reason that George killed Lennie was to prevent the brutal and painful death that he would have received from Curley. Curley wanted revenge for losing his hand to Lennie instead of grieving over the loss of his wife. He wanted to seem like he was a tough guy in front of the other guys at the farm to make up for his height since people could have easily picked on the short guy. He didn’t really care much about his wife. The moment when George kills Lennie also shows mercy because George didn’t want him to suffer. During this moment, “Lennie giggled with happiness…And George raised the gun and steadied it, and he brought the muzzle of it to the back of Lennie’s head. The hand shook violently, but his face set and his hand steadied. He pulled the trigger,’”(Steinbeck, 105-106). George didn’t want Lennie to perish with a cold-hearted stranger, so he thought that it would be better if he died happy with loved ones, even if it meant that he had to kill him. He didn’t run away with him because he realized that what happened in Weed would keep on happening and that they will never get their dream because of him. George feels responsible for Lennie and any of his actions, so