The Ambivalent Tragedy of a Good Death: Reflections on How to Die in Oregon
By Nathan Rubene dos Santos
I came to do this assignment with a veiled reluctance, not of dread but a sort of absent-mindedness. Considering the topic, this is understandable; matters of death and the process of dying tend to deter people from thinking about it too much. Often we hope to be taken from this world swiftly and, if not long in the tooth, at the very least without senseless torment. An ideal scenario would couple our passing with lasting dignity and respect too, but these are optional ornaments to a dirge played more times austere, brief, and without sentiment than otherwise. The treatment of the body at death and after is discussed about with seriousness only …show more content…
Better yet, an eternity.
As for the terminally or chronically ill participants featured in the 2011 documentary film How to Die in Oregon, they have been presented this offer in a discreet, white paper bag that can be purchased for $72 from your nearest local pharmacy. While on a superficial level this appears far more “humane” than any other exit-ticket provided in the past, we are still presented with an ethical dilemma that stretches far beyond guidelines of conduct for physicians: should those threatened by the pain of disease weigh the potentiality of their suffering to be more than their duty to survive? The latter, although arguable from a religious perspective, can just as persuasively be grounded upon biology. As Robert Munson under the pseudonym J. Gay-Williams has written in The Wrongfulness of Euthanasia, the most basic aim in human nature is also our most pervading instinct: to survive and endure, even under the most difficult of circumstances. This intrinsic drive is imitated on the most microscopic levels, from the efforts of molecular cells to transmit sustenance to
By Nathan Rubene dos Santos
I came to do this assignment with a veiled reluctance, not of dread but a sort of absent-mindedness. Considering the topic, this is understandable; matters of death and the process of dying tend to deter people from thinking about it too much. Often we hope to be taken from this world swiftly and, if not long in the tooth, at the very least without senseless torment. An ideal scenario would couple our passing with lasting dignity and respect too, but these are optional ornaments to a dirge played more times austere, brief, and without sentiment than otherwise. The treatment of the body at death and after is discussed about with seriousness only …show more content…
Better yet, an eternity.
As for the terminally or chronically ill participants featured in the 2011 documentary film How to Die in Oregon, they have been presented this offer in a discreet, white paper bag that can be purchased for $72 from your nearest local pharmacy. While on a superficial level this appears far more “humane” than any other exit-ticket provided in the past, we are still presented with an ethical dilemma that stretches far beyond guidelines of conduct for physicians: should those threatened by the pain of disease weigh the potentiality of their suffering to be more than their duty to survive? The latter, although arguable from a religious perspective, can just as persuasively be grounded upon biology. As Robert Munson under the pseudonym J. Gay-Williams has written in The Wrongfulness of Euthanasia, the most basic aim in human nature is also our most pervading instinct: to survive and endure, even under the most difficult of circumstances. This intrinsic drive is imitated on the most microscopic levels, from the efforts of molecular cells to transmit sustenance to