Response to Rebecca Baily’s Post – Ethics & Medicine: Euthanasia

Dr. Jack Kevorkian

I am very glad I stumbled across Rebecca’s post.  Euthanasia is the topic of my persuasive paper.  The movie called, “You don’t know Jack,” sounds like something I would be very interested in watching.  I want to do more research on Dr. Jack Kevorkian because I was just recently informed about him and I think it would make a good point in my persuasive paper.  Like Rebecca said, he was convicted of homicide after performing euthanasia.  He thought that euthanasia should be practice because it relieves the suffering of a patient. I agree with him 100%.

Rebecca states that she is more against euthanasia because she believes death is a natural thing and should not be forced.  However, keeping someone on a breathing machine to breath for them is not natural.  The technology we have these days is prohibiting many patients from dying naturally.  This creates more suffering and is one reason why I think euthanasia should be an option for a patient who is terminally ill.  Terminally ill patients are completely dependent on another person.  Their life consists of bed baths, feeding tubes, bed sores, and urine bags.  None of this sounds natural to me. 

I have to agree with the fact that I think euthanasia should be legalized, only under certain circumstances though.  For example, if someone was terminally ill and is being kept alive by a machine, one might consider euthanasia.  On the other hand, euthanasia should not be offered to a patient that is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or was severely injured in a car accident.  I agree with Rebecca that I would feel differently depending on different situations.

The articles Rebecca links to are interesting.  Of course I’ve seen them before while researching for my persuasive paper, but they explain the different sides of the issue and give definitions.  I will use the article on Dr. Jack Kevorkian to continue my research. 

Article about Jack Kevorkian: http://www.newint.org/easier-english/right_to_die/againstmd.html

Article about Euthanasia: http://mindprod.com/humanrights/euthanasia.html