Would You Let Euthanasia End one's Life?

Would you let Euthanasia end one's life?

Euthanasia is one of the most controversial topics in modern society, and every human being has a different view on it according to their culture, their nation's laws, and their own personal beliefs. I was agreed with euthanasia until one day one of the closest family members; my father; was on a position where euthanasia was an option; after that I became completely disagree with the use of euthanasia under any circumstances. When you have someone so important like your father on a position in where only a miracle can save your father, you only want to wait for that miracle to happen before taking any drastic decision. When the doctors ask me to take a decision about committing euthanasia I sit down on a chair in the hospital and after hours and hours of thinking I found several reasons why I oppose to commit euthanasia: Doctors have the responsibility to reduce pain on patients and maintain the patient until there is not other option. Euthanasia may be used by the hospital for economical reasons. Doctors' predictions may be wrong. Every day Scientifics find new medicines to cure different illness, as consequences a cure to a person that has no hope can come any day. Respect my personal and religion principles. Normally on all cases of terminal diseases or accidents Euthanasia is not the will of either the patient, or his parents and his loved ones.

First to understand the consequences of euthanasia we should first take a look to the meaning of euthanasia and the meaning of the word by itself. The term euthanasia is not new to the twentieth century. Even in ancient societies, terminally ill people requested to have their lives ended; though the meaning of euthanasia for them differed from its meaning today. The English word euthanasia is taken from the Greek eu thanatos "good or easy death." However today it is given a different meaning, because of the social and moral issues it touches. In the present day the term euthanasia is associated with the act of mercifully (although some might argue this point) ending the life of a hopelessly suffering patient with his or her consent. According to English dictionaries, "euthanasia is the practice of killing incurably ill or old people in a painless way; the act of painlessly ending the life of a being that is suffering from a terminal illness or other painful or incurable condition" . In other words, it can be seen as a method to "kill" someone who is struggling against a painful disease with little hope or simply put, euthanasia is mercy killing. Though the definition is relatively simple, it requires more detailed information to understand this very complex topic.

According to our text book and the paper of James Rachels Active and Passive Euthanasia; there are usually two criteria that determine euthanasia. First, there is the active euthanasia and the passive euthanasia. The active euthanasia is a process that involves lethal injection to the patient. Contrarily, the passive euthanasia does not involve any drugs. It is operated only through the suspension of medical treatment without any direct usage of medicine on the patient .

Also on our text book the paper of William Godwin Comparing Human lives? Describes that people also divide euthanasia according to the condition of the patient; whether it was voluntary, involuntary, and, non-voluntary euthanasia. Voluntary euthanasia is carried out by the patient's request. However, involuntary euthanasia is carried out without the patient's will. Finally, the non-voluntary euthanasia is held forcibly to the patient .

But when is right to commit euthanasia? This decision is no define on the dictionaries, or any law had been made to help decide. Personally, when I experience on my own the responsibility to take this decision, all my ethical points of view about euthanasia changed.

On Wednesday February 21st of this year, my father suffered an aneurism (birth defect on the brain); that means that one of his veins on the brain exploited; I called 911 and my father went to emergency room. I had to call my mother from Venezuela; who is my father ex- wife; to help me in this situation because I do not have any brothers or sisters or even another member of my family in the United States. By Friday of that same week my father received brain surgery to close the vein that was open on the brain. For surprise to the doctors, after the surgery my father was awake and conscious, he asked for a mirror and said that he was hungry. However, by Saturday in the afternoon my father enters in comma depending on the respiratory machine in order to be alive.

For the next eight days my father remained on a comma without any improvement and depending totally of the respiratory machine. During those eight days we were told by the doctor that the possibilities for my father to come back from the comma were almost none. Also we were told that my father suffered a severe brain damage that can be only calculated when my father came back from the comma. My father was on intensive care and the doctor start to worry about the statement. Having a person on a room in intensive care is really expensive almost $7,000.00 to $10,000.00 dollars per day. Our legal situation in the country did not benefit us at all, everything look like we had to pay for the full account.

On the other side, my father health situation was getting worse. By the sixth day the doctors decide to have a meting with my mother and me. The doctors told us that my father situation was really dangerous, also that the treatment was very high for us to pay and that we have two options, wait for my father to come out by himself of the comma even do the doctors said that there was no possibility, or turn off the respiratory machine and let my father died. Because my mother is separate from my father and I am 21 all ready, I am responsibility of my father on a situation like this one. That night, the hospital finally gives me a paper to authorize the application of a process of a passive euthanasia on my father and told me that I had to take a decision by next week. I had only three days to decide what to do.

After this news, I start thinking on all my options; it was weird how my opinion changed, before and after this accident. Before the accident I was completely agree with euthanasia, I used to think that people who were in comma occupying a bed without any hope, were actually occupying a space that could be use for a person that have a higher possibility to live normally. However when I had to apply my own point of view in my life, with a person that I love more than anything; all my opinion and conceptions changed. I sit down on a chair in the hospital the rest of the night and start thinking on what to do.

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