Persuasive Essay Euthanasia

Euthanasia has been a controversial debate and is a part of a larger issue concerning the right to die. In the United States, only four states, California, Oregon, Washington, and Vermont have legalized assisted suicide by legislation, and by court ruling in Montana.1 Proponents of euthanasia consider it as “mercy killing,” while the opponents question the ethics and the moral dilemmas such as “is helping someone die a moral and justifiable action?” or “how can killing be ‘merciful’?” The term euthanasia comes from the Greek word “eu,” meaning well, and “thanatos” means death, or “a well and peaceful death.”2 In this modern world, euthanasia implies that one’s life is ended in compassion either actively or passively by another person due to

Maynard stated that her “quality of life, as I knew it, was over.”5 Months of living in agony, Maynard and her family learned the hard truth that there was no cure for her illness, and the recommended treatment would make the rest of her time unbearable. She considered passing away in a hospice care in San Francisco, California. However, since she was young and her body was still healthy, despite the fact that cancer was eating away her brain, she could survive for weeks or even months longer, just in excruciating pain; Maynard did not want to put her family through that, she opted for death with dignity, “It is an end-of-life option for mentally competent, terminally ill patients with a prognosis of six months or less to live. It would enable me to use the medical practice of aid in dying: I could request and receive a prescription from a physician for medication that I could self-ingest to end my dying process if it becomes unbearable.”6 Maynard moved from California to Oregon because at the time, California had yet to pass the Death with Dignity Act. Maynard stated that she wasn’t suicidal, she “[did not] want to die. But I am dying. And I want to die on my own terms”. After celebrating her husband’s birthday on October 26th, she decided to end her live on November 1st, 2014.7 Before Maynard passed, she said she was able to move on, enjoy

All of our choices have some sort of maxims, or intentions. Maxims are sets of personal principles which guide our actions. Morality is a set of rules that applies to everyone, and everyone has the potential to act morally, but it is unlikely that everyone will due to each person’s personal inclinations. Morality can’t be based on happiness due to the fact that happiness differs for everyone, if morality was based on happiness, each person will be motivated differently. But since morality applies to everyone, they need to be motivated the same way. Secondly, not all happiness is morally good, one could feel happy by committing a murder, but murder is morally wrong. Since morality can’t be happiness, it has to be reason. Morality and reason are universal, they apply to everyone and they play a part in a much bigger imperative Kant called “Categorical Imperative.” The first formulation of categorical imperative is the universal law formulation and it