Assisted Suicide Argument Against Euthanasia

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The argument between the Schindlers and Michael Schiavo on whether or not the feeding tube of Terry Schiavo should be removed sparked media interest all over the US. This media attention brought a very bright light to the controversy on whether assisted suicide (or euthanasia) should be legalized in the United States. With strict rules and regulations assisted suicide should be made legal. Assisted suicide and the word euthanasia is commonly interchanged. The word euthanasia is derived from the Greek language with “eu”, meaning good, and “thanatos”, meaning death (Robinson,2008). B.A. Robinson (2008) explains that there are a few meanings to these words, one is “the intentional termination of life by another…show more content…
From a Christian stand point, assisted suicide is wrong and should not be done under any circumstance. It is looked at like suicide, and they say that the Bible says suicide is wrong and should not be done. Pope John Paul the second stated to an international congress of physicians and ethicists in Rome, “Administration of food and water, even when provided by artificial means, always represents a natural means of preserving life, not a medical act (Commonweal,2004).” Dr. James Dobson even got into it when he mentioned something on the Oregon making assisted suicide legal. He said, “By a sizable margin of 60-40 percent, Oregonians have authorized their doctors to administer lethal doses of poison to willing patients...For the moment, if you are elderly and ill, Oregon is the last place you should want to be (Robinson,2008).” He makes it sound like they are killing people at random. Even some disabled people feel very strongly on this issue, and even go to the extreme. In an paper written by Robert L. Burgdorf(1999), titled “Assisted Suicide: A Disability Perspective”, writes, “The pressures upon people with disabilities to choose to end their lives, and the insidious appropriation by others of the right to make that choice for them are already prevalent and will continue to increase as managed health care and limitations upon health care resources…show more content…
|Median Years (range) |72 (44-93) |69 (25-96) |70 (25-96) | |Underlying Illnesses | | | | |Malignant neoplasms (%) |48 (80.0) |280 (82.1) |328 (81.8) | | Lung and bronchus(%) |14 (29.2) |65 (19.1) |79 (19.7) | | Pancreas(%) |3 (6.3) |30 (8.8) |33 (8.2) | | Breast(%) |5 (10.4) |30 (8.8) |35 (8.7) | | Colon(%) |4 (8.3) |23 (6.7) |27 (6.7) | | Prostate(%) |3 (6.3) |20 (5.9) |23 (5.7) | | Other(%) |19 (36.9) |112 (32.8) |131 (32.7)

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