When one thinks of euthanasia, they often think of death panels and people just getting rid of those that are deemed no longer useful.
However, what of those people who want to die?
Americans & Euthanasia.
According to a recent Gallup poll, nearly 70 percent of Americans favor giving a physician legally the means to painlessly end a patient’s life by some type of means, but opinions vary dramatically by religiosity and by the wording of the question.
Before I continue, let me say this:
In statistics, there is a certain group of people polled. This group is called a sample. A sample of a population is taken and the consensus of the sample is then used to speak for the population in a poll. This does not mean that every American was asked- it just means certain ones were polled as a sample group from the population.
Back to the post!
This appears to be a growing trend from twenty years earlier. However, this was a poll done among people who identify as religious, and it was found that 48 percent of those polled who attend weekly services support euthanasia where 82 percent of those polled that only sporadically attend religious services support euthanasia.
This perhaps shows a correlation, but it does not necessarily mean a causation. That means that while the two may seem to relate, it does not necessarily mean that the views of the people polled were affected by attending services. It also does not mean that they were not caused either, however.
Pros of Legalizing Euthanasia.
Euthanasia could grant the person who wishes to go ahead and pass on from this life to whatever lies beyond the control over their life.
They could go ahead and stop any suffering that would come from an incurable disease, such as cancer; and when I say incurable, I mean that chemo is not going to help and nothing else can be done but go home and wait.
It could save lives– in the Netherlands, since euthanasia has been legalized, it has only occurred 0.4 percent of the time without a patient’s express wishes for it to happen, whereas, before legalization, that number was up to 0.8 percent of the time.
Cons of Legalizing Euthanasia.
Sometimes people that wish to pass on just need proper support– they also may be in a stage of their illness that is resulting in a depression that will end when they get beyond the shock of the disease being present or as the cycle continues.
It could result in people being assisted with a suicide who really didn’t want to die. Sometimes, in the medical field, someone is given the wrong medicine because something was filed wrong or the wrong order was written for the wrong patient or the wrong chart was in the doctor or nurse’s hand. It happens and is an honest mistake. In the case of euthanasia, there would not be a reversal, as far as I know.
Merciful or Darker Paths?
I have worked with terminally ill patients in my line of work as a caregiver before I returned to nursing school. I have seen the pain that the patients go through and I have seen the sorrow of the families, watching their loved ones suffer and knowing that there is nothing they can do to alleviate the pain.
I honestly do not know what the right path is with this and I wish there were an easy absolute answer. I say that because, while I have seen the suffering in people that are terminally ill, I have also read such novels as?The Giver?and that haunts me as well.
Let us know what you think at Liberal America!
