The Pros And Cons Of Euthanasia And Assisted Suicide

Imagine your best friend is terminally ill and getting worse each day, would you rather have him/her die in pain or die with little to no pain at all? Euthanasia helps suffering people die a short, painless death. The patient also gets a say in when and if they die most of the time. In Annapolis, Maryland, a 16 year old watched and assisted his girlfriend with her suicide. The boy had stolen a .38 caliber handgun from his father and gave it to his girlfriend for her to use to commit suicide. He was charged with assisting in a suicide because it was illegal in the state of Maryland. If euthanasia was legal in all states, things like this wouldn’t happen. Euthanasia is legal in 5 US States, Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands.The 5 states

Oregon’s “Death with Dignity Act” allows terminally ill Oregon residents to use prescriptions in lethal doses. Ludwig Minelli, founder of Dignitas, (A swiss suicide clinic) stated “The idea of a terminal illness as a condition for assisted suicide is a British obsession. We never say no. Even those suffering from Alzheimer's will have lucid moments in which they may choose to die. We would never assist the death of someone with acute depression... But if somebody comes after 10 or 12 years of depression and says they do not want to prolong their life under such conditions, then we might help them to die. We should not start from the premise that suicide should not happen.” At the moment, not much is being done to legalize euthanasia within the states, but in Australia, people are still fighting to keep the “Rights of The Terminally Ill” law

54% of medical practitioners support euthanasia, and about 86% of the public support it. The minimum age for euthanasia is 18 in most places. However, Belgium passed a child euthanasia law to allow children born with diseases that will probably kill them later on in life to die a quick, painless death. Although child euthanasia is legal in Belgium, many other countries that have legalized euthanasia have had people pushing for child euthanasia to be legal as well, but they have never succeeded.

Jack Kevorkian, a widely known PAD and Euthanasia advocate, had began his campaign on June 4th, 1990. He had assisted the suicide of a woman diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease, but at the time Michigan had no law on Euthanasia so Kevorkian was not arrested. Kevorkian’s next assisted suicide took place on October 23rd, 1991. He treated two women, one with multiple sclerosis and one with chronic pelvic pain. He was arrested for murder but the case was dismissed. However, Kevorkian had drawn a lot of attention to himself and assisted suicide. As a result, euthanasia was later announced