Is Euthanasia a Valid Option or Not?

One of the most engaging issues on the medical front today is the idea of euthanasia. Euthanasia is the practice of ending a life in a painless manner. It is generally done as a way to relieve suffering and is sometimes referred to as “mercy killing”.  The debate is over whether this should be legal to do, and whether consent by the patient is enough to allow doctors to go through with the procedure. I believe that Euthanasia should be an option for end of life choices, but that there should be limits put on its uses. It should not be used as an easy way out for doctors or families but as a viable option to ease suffering and sorrow.

Euthanasia is at its core, a humanitarian idea.  The concept of ending someone’s suffering and easing them on toward the afterlife has a romantic ring to it, but this idea has been under heavy scrutiny, as the American public is very wary of such a concept becoming a viable option. As Stephen Potts writes in his article, Objections to the Institutionalization of Euthanasia, “to institute euthanasia, however carefully, would undoubtedly magnify all the latent fears of doctors and hospitals harbored by the general public. The inventible result would be a rise in late presentations and, therefore, preventable deaths” (Potts 300b).  The fear of being euthanized would, according to Potts, lead to less people coming in and getting checked on and lead to more death, but this I feel is false.  The American public is already scared out of their wits of doctors and hospitals. Whether it be because of financial situations and the inability to pay bills, or because they fear

they may be prescribed a medicine or undergo a procedure, the general public has a fear that I don’t think will be increased if euthanasia becomes a choice.

In theory, euthanasia is a very applicable thing.  It is hard for families to sit and watch their loved ones suffer through the agony of pain or the torment of losing their minds or personalities either to disease or drugs.  It is even harder for the patient; if they see their families suffering as much, if not more then they are, and if they are in their lucid mind and realize that there is no medically sound way that they will improve they may just choose euthanasia as a way out.