Euthanasia In Society

Is it our right or freedom to decide the conditions of our own death as American citizens? Throughout the world, people have asked this question and even enacted laws based off of their viewpoints on the situation of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide(PAS). According to Derek Humphry, the founder of the Euthanasia Research and Guidance Organization, euthanasia is "Death by lethal injection by a doctor when requested by a patient." and physician-assisted suicide is a "Medical doctor helping a patient to die by prescribing a lethal overdose." Although the circumstances of being terminally ill and people wanting medical assistance to help them commit suicide has been around since medicine has, the idea and practice of euthanasia and PAS …show more content…
When we begin to tamper with these aspects of society, it is likely to bring a significant impact into play that we may or may not like the outcome of. With this being said, the idea of making euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide legal, especially when we do already have accepted ways of dealing with and helping the terminally ill, cuts into these core values that have been instilled in us and that define our society as we know it. One of the major views and values that this would undermine or go back on is the law that states that you cannot kill another human being because legalizing euthanasia is making it legal for one human being to intentionally end the life of another, which by definition is murder. Margaret Somerville, a professor of law and the faculty of medicine, believes that by legalizing euthanasia, we would be tainting our respect for human life and that laws against killing one another are the "the cornerstone of law and human relationships". To elaborate on this, by giving someone else the legal ability to end another 's life you are allowing them to essentially "play God" on that person which then redefines what we must look at as murder opposed to suicide because, although the one being euthanized may have consented, ultimately someone else is doing the killing and it is not self-inflicted. Although some may say that euthanasia is the best solution to end the sufferings of the terminally ill, euthanasia is really just a cop out that is a seemingly easy solution for a problem that is much more complex and legalizing it could redefine our views and values on the concept of hope. People or patients who opt for euthanasia, normally do this because they are hopeless about their future and believe that all it holds is suffering and death which is why they want the