Voluntary Euthanasia

When we talk about the term euthanasia we refer to the act of euthanasia which is defined as bringing about the death of another life because their existence is so bad that he or she would be better off dead. There are three types of euthanasia with the first being voluntary euthanasia where a competent person makes a voluntary request to be assisted in ending their life. The next is non-voluntary euthanasia in which a person is either not competent or unable to make the decision and request assistance in their death yet family members or a proxy make the decision on behalf of the person. This is a less common situation but there are issues when we think of the legality of voluntary euthanasia and the possibility of legalization of voluntary euthanasia could lead to improper non-voluntary euthanasia. The last is involuntary euthanasia in which a competent person expresses wishes against euthanasia yet is put to death against their wishes. This in effect is murder so there will not be any discussion on involuntary euthanasia because, as we all can agree, this is inherently wrong. The controversy of assisted suicide has been prevalent in the latter part of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. However in the past 100 years or so there have been efforts to make legal provisions for voluntary euthanasia without much avail. In the 1970’s and 1980’s a series of court cases in The Netherlands led to the success in getting legislation enacted in 2000 that in essence allowed physicians to provide assisted voluntary euthanasia to people with an unbearable existence due to illness. Belgium also passed similar laws in 2001. In the US, Oregon has legislation that allows for some voluntary euthanasia. However, in 1997 the USSC held that there is no constitutional right to voluntary euthanasia but this has not stopped the practice in Oregon nor repealed the legislation. In my opinion I do not condone the idea of taking the life of someone else or taking one’s own life. These ideas represent giving up hope to me and I try to be as optimistic in my thinking as much as I can. Now I must say that this is a difficult point to argue because I have been fortunate in my life thus far that I haven’t even had to contemplate the idea. I have not been to anyone’s bedside when they were suffering from some debilitating disease and I certainly have never been in that position myself. So it is impossible for me to argue that there is not a particular need in certain circumstances for this practice. Furthermore I cannot argue that there is a need for this practice. All of this would be mere speculation at this point. What I can argue is that this type of legislation seems to have a lot of loop holes that can turn into a rather slippery slope legally. The difference between voluntary and involuntary euthanasia could certainly turn into a rather ambiguous one when given the mental and physical state of the person who is suffering. I at one time or another we all have felt so bad with whatever it be, a sickness, a relationship problem, finances, ect that we felt like we could not go on. However these all are temporary problems and I realize that a relationship issue is different than a terminal illness but they all represent the same thing to me… giving up hope. I cannot and will not justify giving up hope.