Euthanasia: Live or Let Die? The world today, as advanced as it may seem, is filled with suffering. There are multiple diseases that are incurable and cause pain, such as cancer or AIDS. People who were once filled with life are reduced to staying in a hospital bed twenty-four hours a day. The evolution of medicinal practices is often not enough to cure or relieve the pain for these people. Euthanasia is simply “the act or practice of killing hopelessly sick or injured individuals (as persons or domestic animals) in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy” (Merriam-Webster). It has been around for centuries and remains a controversial issue today. Numerous countries around the world are either completely against or advocate the process
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In Oregon, a woman named Brittany Maynard who was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer, decided to end her life in 2014. She was forced to move from her home in California, to Oregon, which was one of the few states at the time to offer assisted suicide. Since then, California has followed in Oregon’s steps and legalized assisted suicide as well, but only under certain circumstances as shown by the map provided by the Charlotte Lozier Institute. She became the face of the right-to-die movement at the time and sparked controversy all over the United States. Her death brought the issue of euthanasia back into the public eye once more, with some stating that Maynard’s decision was “based on an unreal understanding of death” (Yuill), while others strongly supporting her nobility “to affirming at the end the distinctive human dignity of autonomous choice” (Will). She was given six months to live and decided to take fate into her own hands. She wanted death in order to save her and her family, especially with the symptoms that she was suffering from: Seizures, back and neck pain, and strokes. It 's hard to imagine yourself or a loved one with a terminal illness so debilitating that death becomes your top priority, but it is possible, and happened in the case of Brittany Maynard, who was 29 years old and had her entire life ahead of
In Oregon, a woman named Brittany Maynard who was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer, decided to end her life in 2014. She was forced to move from her home in California, to Oregon, which was one of the few states at the time to offer assisted suicide. Since then, California has followed in Oregon’s steps and legalized assisted suicide as well, but only under certain circumstances as shown by the map provided by the Charlotte Lozier Institute. She became the face of the right-to-die movement at the time and sparked controversy all over the United States. Her death brought the issue of euthanasia back into the public eye once more, with some stating that Maynard’s decision was “based on an unreal understanding of death” (Yuill), while others strongly supporting her nobility “to affirming at the end the distinctive human dignity of autonomous choice” (Will). She was given six months to live and decided to take fate into her own hands. She wanted death in order to save her and her family, especially with the symptoms that she was suffering from: Seizures, back and neck pain, and strokes. It 's hard to imagine yourself or a loved one with a terminal illness so debilitating that death becomes your top priority, but it is possible, and happened in the case of Brittany Maynard, who was 29 years old and had her entire life ahead of