Euthanasia is the deliberate ending of life of a person suffering from an incurable It is also called mercy killing. Much of society today is in favor of euthanasiabecause they think we have the right to decide for ourselves if it is right to terminatesomeones life. The more widely held opinion is against euthanasia primarily becausesociety feels that we as human beings are in no position to behave as God and endsomeones life. The double edge-sword of euthanasia is that while proponents say it putsan end to useless suffering, those who object believe its inherent evil is that it will put anend to useless people.The potential effects of a legalized practice of euthanasia are serious. Theimprovement in terminal care is a direct result of attempts made to minimize suffering. Ifthat suffering had been terminated by killing the patients who bore it, then we may neverhave known the advances in the control of pain, nausea, breathlessness, and other terminalsymptoms that the last twenty years have seen. Some diseases that were terminal a fewdecades ago are now easily cured by newly developed treatments. This means that if weaccept euthanasia now, we may never discover effective treatments for those diseases thatare now terminal.Every doctor can tell stories of being proven wrong in their prognosis to patientsor of people who were diagnosed as terminally ill and recover. Imagine, if euthanasiawere legal, most of those people would have died. That is a major risk too great to take.Pressure on the patient is a cause of many deaths. Plenty of patients feel guilty forimposing burdens on those who care for them, even when the families are happy to bearthe burden. The result is a request for euthanasia and the death of a great many patientswho do not wish to die.Much of todays health care is provided through managed care and healthmaintenance organizations (HMOs). Under this system, doctors and hospitals receivemore money for doing less...
