Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide

When a beloved pet gets so very sick that it cannot get well, a veterinarian will often suggest euthanasia as an option to help the animal out of its suffering. It is considered the kindest last act you can do for the animal you love.

For humans this is an issue that causes people to have strong opinions one way or another. Either you are for euthanasia or you are totally against it. A new option in Oregon, Belgium and the Netherlands is doctor-assisted suicide.

Some might think that assisted suicide and euthanasia are two sides to the same coin, but there is a vast difference. In the former the doctor performs the last act, whether it is a prescription for a lethal dose of medication, or the doctor inserts an intravenous line into the dying person's arm and has a switch for the man or woman to push to start the flow of toxin to stop the heart. In euthanasia, a third party, someone other than the one who is dying preforms the last act.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide are not widely accepted as a way out of a long painful terminal illness. Should people be forced to stay alive, when they clearly don't want to suffer anymore? No, even though euthanasia and assisted suicide is not an option for most of our nation, patients don't have to suffer endlessly, someone who is terminally ill can have a living will drawn up that specifies what, if anything, they want done in the event that they can no longer make decisions for themselves. The terminally ill don't have to be hooked up to machines that keep them alive. They don't have to have life preserving measures preformed to prolong their lives.

Withholding measures that would keep someone alive, allows the patient to die with dignity, and does not hold anyone responsible for their death, because they have died naturally, and not at someone's hand, whether it be their own, or a third party.

It is my belief that the Christian religion and its doctrine that human life was created in the image of God, has made the thought of euthanasia and assisted suicide an unacceptable way to die.

I could not say whether I would consider euthanasia or assisted suicide because I have not experienced the suffering that must bring someone to that point in his or her life. I did see my mother suffer, and she begged for us to do something to help her end her suffering, to put her out of her misery. With tears in my eyes, I had to tell her, "Mom, I can't do that." I was relieved when she finally slipped into unconsciousness so that I wouldn't hear her cries.

It is my belief that if more people want this option available to them to end their suffering then more people should lobby for it in their state legislatures. The problem I see with this is that people might choose to end their lives too quickly, when there might be a chance for them to recover.

There is another side of this argument, if our government gives a person the right to kill another human being, we could find ourselves in a position where senior citizens are no longer valued and will be killed off to reduce the population. We may no longer have a say in our own lives, because someone in authority could make the decision to exterminate us because we have outlived our usefulness.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide depend on a third party for the death to occur, which is not the same as someone deciding to take their own life. I believe the reason that neither euthanasia nor assisted suicide has been widely accepted in the world is because it opens the door for abuse.