Euthanasia

In the movie Million Dollar Baby, Frank Dunn takes in a woman known simply as Maggie and trains her to be a championship caliber boxer. Despite the fact that Maggie is thirty-two years of age and has had no previous boxing experience, Frank eventually trains her and together they win many matches together. Along the way Frank and Maggie form a bond similar to that of Father and Daughter. But when Maggie is struck with a spinal injury that leaves her paralyzed from the neck down Frank must make a choice. Will he let nature take it's course and watch the woman he has come to know and love deteriorate, both physically and mentally from the anguish she feels over not being able to fight again? Or will he fulfill her final wish and end her life so that she can have some final shred of peace?

In Kill Bill, Beatrix Kiddo is placed in a coma after suffering a brutal attack from her former comrades. Her comrades have betrayed her after finding out a disturbing secret that causes her to flee from them. Because of the amount of skill she possesses, it is thought to be safe to end her life while she is still in a coma instead of letting her recuperate and exacting her revenge on each of them.

Both of the above cases are examples of points that Tom Beauchamp makes in his article about justifying physician-assisted deaths. In the article, Beauchamp explains the difference between killing someone and letting someone die, as well as covering the proper instances that should be used in explaining what is a moral way of ending someone's life. Beauchamp does an excellent of job of covering these points, but fails to fully explore how a patient's mental state can affect their decisions or how society would differ if we were to open the flood gates into active euthanasia.

Beauchamp explains how most people view the difference between killing and letting die in his rather simply. Killing is defined as an action in which one person intentionally and unjustifiably causes the death of another human being. He quickly refutes this statement because that would leave out instances where killing is justified, such as when doctors do decide to not revive a patient because waking them would cause much pain.

Beauchamp also shows that there is no way to prove that one idea is morally better than the other when it comes to killing or allowing to die. It is true that sometimes killing can be morally wrong, such as when someone is murdered in cold blood. There are also times however, where allowing to die can be bad, such as if a doctor walked by someone that was lying on the ground bleeding to death but decided not to help