Michael+On+Kevorkian+and+Euthanasia

Kevorkian is right to help people with there final wish to die. During his case he was tried for murder because he took the life of another human being and that was all the jury saw. What the jury didn’t see was the suffering he was ending for the patient. Life should be prolonged at all costs but if the patient doesn’t even want to live then we should listen to what they want and not be selfish or be a “coward”. Committing euthanasia is the right thing to do because it ends suffering, is a mercy killing, and allows for the patient to have control over how and when they leave this earth.

When a patient is living in unbearable pain and doesn’t want to live anymore, is it necessary to keep them alive? Doctors in California and across the nation want the doctor to always be looked at as someone who prolongs life and doesn’t end it. I feel that this is the wrong way to look at a very complicated problem. Doctors need to look at this in the way that they are ending there life, but doing that they are also ending the patients suffering. When a patient only has weeks to live doctors shouldn’t just stand around and watch them live in this pain, but take action and go through with the patients wish.

Another question that goes along with this is whether or not the doctor should take part in this or watch the patient take there own life. Doctors should have an active part in ending the patients life as long as it is requested many times over a long period of time. A doctor should see there patient through till the end and help them with whatever they would like. Sometimes a patient cant actively take part in there own suicide because they are so disabled. Sometimes people can’t swallow the pills that’s needed so they can’t do this without the doctors help. Doctors should be able to take an active part in this without be looked at as murders.

The last and biggest reason why doctors should help the patient commit suicide is because it is what they want. The patient should have control over what happens to them and if they want the doctor assist them in suicide then the doctor should do this. Disregarding patient’s wishes is the exact opposite of what a doctor should do. Doctors need to follow through with whatever the patient would like. The patient should be able to determine when they want to end there life and not have to wait for “natural causes” because the doctors are to scared to get in trouble with the law.

The biggest critics of Euthanasia would be the people of the Catholic Church. They feel that anything and everything should be done to prolong life. The biggest argument that they have is that it is up to God for when you die and that it’s all in the plan so that you shouldn’t go against it. Committing suicide to them is a sin and that’s the reason these people are against it so much. My counter argument to that is if we aren’t suppose to medically change anything, then wouldn’t getting flu shots and surgery be going against God’s plan as well? People don’t need to suffer if they don’t want to. The decision should solely be on the patient and nobody else.

 The benefit of assisted suicide is the suffering that is ended by this. When you help a patient end their life because they are suffering in terrible pain you are doing the right thing. Even though religion feel it is a sin to end your life, it is what that person wants and they have the legal right to decide what they want to do with their body.

In the end, I feel doctors need to take an active role in the suicide of patients who are living in unbearable pain and don’t have very long to live, or terminally ill patients. If the doctor doesn’t listen to the patient then they shouldn’t be a doctor. Patients come first in the healthcare field and that shouldn’t change even when life and death is being talked about.