Euthanasia: We Have a Right to a Peaceful Death :: Euthanasia, Physician Assisted Suicide

If there is a contemporary ethical issue which is even more explosive than abortion, it's the question of whether human beings have the right to a peaceful death (euthanasia). In my opinion, a terminally ill person should have a right to avoid pre-death pains and die as peacefully as possible. At this final stage of our presence here, we should not agonize in pointless pain but try to leave well and this implies our right to decide whether we should use euthanasia. Thus, I believe that we need a law that will confirm our rights to euthanasia. However this issue goes beyond merely a right of a certain individual for euthanasia. Many legal norms and procedures must be developed and conventional moral norms must be modified in order to accommodate euthanasia in practice in the USA. In cases of active assisted euthanasia, an assistant (doctor) should feel himself or herself morally comfortable, i.e. not viewed as a murderer. In cases of active unassisted euthanasia a dying person should not be judged as a person who committed suicide. As to the procedures that the government must develop they should ensure that there is a minimum chance of abuse of euthanasia. (Sasha, your part) Abuse aside, it is important that euthanasia does not become simply an expedient solution to the problem of the care for elderly. Nowadays in the United States, even a somewhat healthy elderly person after a certain age comes under a growing social pressure to enter a nursing home, so as to solve the problem of his or her care. Similar pressure (even if to a different degree) to exercise one’s right to euthanasia will necessarily exist if it is legalized. Thus, society must be extremely careful not to let euthanasia become just another convenient solution to the problem of elderly care. It is only the last resort of a person to end agonizing pain, not to stop being a â€Å"burden† on the family or society. This will be especially important in about 10-20-30 years as a large segment of population, the baby boomers, will start approaching the end of their lives. As to the work of Dr. Euthanasia: We Have a Right to a Peaceful Death :: Euthanasia, Physician Assisted Suicide If there is a contemporary ethical issue which is even more explosive than abortion, it's the question of whether human beings have the right to a peaceful death (euthanasia). In my opinion, a terminally ill person should have a right to avoid pre-death pains and die as peacefully as possible. At this final stage of our presence here, we should not agonize in pointless pain but try to leave well and this implies our right to decide whether we should use euthanasia. Thus, I believe that we need a law that will confirm our rights to euthanasia. However this issue goes beyond merely a right of a certain individual for euthanasia. Many legal norms and procedures must be developed and conventional moral norms must be modified in order to accommodate euthanasia in practice in the USA. In cases of active assisted euthanasia, an assistant (doctor) should feel himself or herself morally comfortable, i.e. not viewed as a murderer. In cases of active unassisted euthanasia a dying person should not be judged as a person who committed suicide. As to the procedures that the government must develop they should ensure that there is a minimum chance of abuse of euthanasia. (Sasha, your part) Abuse aside, it is important that euthanasia does not become simply an expedient solution to the problem of the care for elderly. Nowadays in the United States, even a somewhat healthy elderly person after a certain age comes under a growing social pressure to enter a nursing home, so as to solve the problem of his or her care. Similar pressure (even if to a different degree) to exercise one’s right to euthanasia will necessarily exist if it is legalized. Thus, society must be extremely careful not to let euthanasia become just another convenient solution to the problem of elderly care. It is only the last resort of a person to end agonizing pain, not to stop being a â€Å"burden† on the family or society. This will be especially important in about 10-20-30 years as a large segment of population, the baby boomers, will start approaching the end of their lives. As to the work of Dr.