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Samantha Pletcher
Mrs. Jarrett
Enriched English 10
18 December 2008

A Life Worse than Death?

Your hands shake as the painkillers flow into your IV. The clock ticks loudly, and you wonder how long you will have watching it until you finally stop breathing. There’s no cure, the doctor said. There’s nothing else we can do for you. Two thousand and seven hundred patients were killed in doctor patient suicide in the Netherlands alone, and thousands more were euthanized the same year. (“Remmelink Report”) Euthanasia, often called “mercy killing”, is still illegal in most countries but numerous have considered legalizing assisted suicide. Regardless of laws, there have been several occurrences of ‘suicide tourists’, in which the terminal patient will travel to a different country where euthanasia is legal, and end their life there (“Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia Timeline”). Euthanasia should be a voluntary process, only if the patient is in a healthy mental condition and the disease being suffered is an option worse than death.

Euthanasia has been discussed and debated since the Ancient Grecian and Roman Times. Hippocrates, a Greek physician often referred to as ‘The Father of Medicine’, stated “I will never give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect” (“Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide Timeline”). His words are prominent even today’s medical practice, because of his “Hippocratic Oath” which all licensed doctors are legally required to swear into.