Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia - Mercy Killing :: Free Euthanasia Essay

Euthanasia Mercy Killing        Sue Rodriguez has reminded us all of our own mortality and our need to think carefully about the conformation of society we want to live and to die in. Sue Rodriguez was known through the media, and her well spoken and eloquent speeches.  People painfully in support of what she believed in, watched as her strength was sapped by the devastating disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), and we were moved by her clear thought and her bravery as a person facing final stage.  hither was a woman who acted on her beliefs with courage and tenacity and whose grace has enriched us all.        It is no defense to point to the fact that a person has requested to be killed  No person is entitled to consent to have death inflicted upon him, and such consent does not affect the criminal responsibilities of any person by whom death may be inflicted upon the person by whom consent is given, which seems to me an that no one has a right to consent to have death inflicted on him or her.  In addition, if a person causes the death of another, the consent of the deceased does not provide the person who caused the death a defense to criminal responsibility.  Is there a difference of opinion, do you think, among a person who, at a dying persons request, prepares a poison and leaves it on the bedside for that person to take, and a person who helps the patient to confound it or who administers it directly at the request of a dying person who is unable to take it personally?  Is there, in short, a real distinction between killing and letting die?  Well, this is the difference between passive and active euthanasia, and if you believe in euthanasia, you must decide which one is correct or make up accept both to be correct depending upon the situation.        We must carefully think through a number of conceptual issues. What is a person?  What is dea th?  How does the difference between active and passive function in arguments for and against euthanasia?  Is there any difference between killing and letting die?  Suppose the relate agrees to withhold treatment... The justification for his doing so is that the patient is in terrible agony, and since he is going to die anyway, it would