Analysis

of Euthanasia effects 1
Anya Diehl
Dr. Ryan Allen
WRTG 109
3 March 2015


Euthanasia in Todays Society

Imagine yourself being unable to walk, unable to see, and can barely
breathe let alone speak. You are in such unbearable pain that you cant even cry.
Your life was well lived all those years before but now, there is no way that you
could function without assistance. You think and feel as if your life has no
meaning. Although your family is there for your every step of the way you begin
to think, could ending your life be the answer to the pain? Well in all reality this
isnt something anyone needs to imagine. This is a real situation for many, many
people. These people should be able to make their own choices and have control
of their own lives.
Euthanasia is a term still new to many of us. It is a Greek term meaning good
death. It means self-imposed death in a relatively painless and merciful way.

Euthanasia is categorized in different ways, which include voluntary, non-

Analysis of Euthanasia effects 1

voluntary, or involuntary and active or passive. Euthanasia is usually used to refer

to active euthanasia, and in this sense, euthanasia is usually considered to be
criminal homicide, but voluntary, passive euthanasia is widely non-criminal.
By looking at the image above, we can infer things about euthanasia itself,
the suffering of the patient, and the pain through the familys eyes
Euthanasia is costly. You can see that in the picture it looks as if the women
is the wife and the man in pain is the husband. The women has her face buried in
her hands like she is very stressed and upset about the all of this time and money
being put into her husband. Even though families love their terminally ill family
memebers, there has to be a point where enough is enough and come to the
realization that their loved one is not going to get better on life support or
whatever the case might be. The right to die shows that the elderly, those with
disabilities, and terminal illnesses fear becoming a financial burden on their loved
ones would rather choose death. They say that next to pain and suffering this is the
second most important reason people want to die by euthanasia. A survey that took
place in Oregon, one of the few places where "assisted dying" is legal, showed us
that in 66% of cases the reason for patients' requests to die was because they did
not want to be a burden to their families. Obviously no one wants to be a burden to
their families and friends so this makes the decision for choosing euthanasia much
easier for people in the predicament.
There are many reasons for choosing euthanasia but the biggest motivating
factor is pain. In this photo it shows the man that looks like he is in pain. He is
connected to an oxygen tube so we can infer that he is having troubles with
breathing. We can read into this photo even more and say that this man is suffering
so much to the point where it is difficult for him to breathe. We dont know how
long he has been hooked up to the oxygen, but by the looks of the women siting
next to him he seems to be in a lot of pain. According to a study done by Robert
Pearlman, MD, he interviewed thirty-five families and asked about the medical
conditions of their loved ones. The study showed that of the thirty-five families
interviewed, 69% of which chose euthanasia because of the feeling of pain or
weakness. This is significant because it shows that the majority of these patients
decided to die because of pain and suffering. We can predict that these families
just wanted to put their loved ones out of their misery and not because of the
burdens of costs.
The third aspect shown in this photo is the woman. The woman represents
the family side to euthanasia. The womans face is buried in her hands and she
looks almost hopeless. She looks like she has lost hope for her loved one so much
that it is putting her through pain and misery. More often times than not, families
will choose euthanasia for their suffering loved one. Sometimes the loved one

Analysis of Euthanasia effects 1

cannot make the decision because they cant even communicate anymore, they are
just vegetables. If the families are not making the decision to pull the plug, then
the patients themselves are. The woman looks like she has lost all hope. Families
sometimes choose euthanasia because they see that the situation or illness is not
going to get better. Families will also choose euthanasia because then they can
know when their loved one will die. Knowing when their suffering loved one was
going to die may help them grieve. I dont think that this is right because how do
we really know how long our loved one is going to live? We may be told that they
have 6 days but end up living 6 months. How awful would it be to make the
decision to pull the plug not knowing that the loved one would really live longer
than expected?
Euthanasia is a very controversial topic that still raises many questions
today. Now that we have learned more about euthanasia and have analyzed the
image above, we can infer things about euthanasia itself, the suffering of the
patient, and the pain through the families eyes. Although euthanasia means good
death, is it really the right and best choice to make?

Analysis of Euthanasia effects 1

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Image
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