The Legalization Of Euthanasia: Why The Right To Choose Is Right

5 Pages 1368 Words

Euthanasia is an issue that is commonly debated, mostly from a religious aspect, but one’s religion should not take away one’s “right to die”. Euthanasia should be legalized not because religious affiliations approve, but because physicians should have the ability to relieve the terminally ill from pain and suffering and to prevent obscene health care costs for the terminally ill and their families.
Before one can understand why euthanasia should be legalized one has to understand what euthanasia is and the many forms. The word “euthanasia” originated from the Greek language where eu means “good” and thantos means “death.” That is, the term euthanasia most commonly implies that the person who wishes to commit suicide must initiate the act. But euthanasia has many meanings that are characterized by the types: passive, active, assisted, and involuntary. Passive is hastening the death of a person by altering some form of support and letting nature take its course. Active involves causing the death of a person through a direct action, in response to a request from that person. Assisted is when a physician (can sometimes be a family member) supplies information and or the means of committing suicide (lethal dose of sleeping pills, carbon monoxide) to a person, so that they can easily terminate their own life. And involuntary describes the killing of a person that has not explicitly requested aid in dying, but remains in a persistent vegetative state and will probably never recover consciousness (The Learning Network).
Euthanasia has been made into a religious issue, even though it is not one. Most arguments made against euthanasia come from a religious basis. The main source of the religious opposition comes from the Jewish-Christian religions, one of the strongest opponents being the Roman Catholic Church. However, there are individuals within these religions, including ordinary believers, priests, and ...