[Debate Speech by Violet Villapa - 11 Righteousness]

So why should Euthanesia be legalized?

Well…when you think about it… by just seeing the patients suffer by sight
is already painful enough, how much more to the person who is bearing
that suffering of constant and unbearable pain?

Then what about the bereaved families you may ask? Based on an
assessment of how Euthanasia in terminally ill cancer patients affects the
grief response of bereaved family and friends…suprisingly showed that they
coped better with respect to grief symptoms and post-traumatic stress
reactions than the bereaved families of comparable cancer patients who
died in a natural death.

But my main point is…reality speaking, no matter what we do, we will all
come to the point that we’ll die. Don’t you think that It’s more appropriate to
let them go peacefully and by their own means instead of watching them
slowly die in front of our eyes, YES! they’re alive but they are tied in bed,
with a bunch of machines and equipment treating them like a dog on
leashes. Living a life dependent on those things is not considered as a
quality of life. They should be able to be given an option that they could
attain Euthanesia or the Right to Die with Dignity! Because, Just like a
doctor once said: “We have to accept that we cannot cure everything, and
our role, when we can’t cure, is to try and relieve the patient.”

That’s why I agree! For the patients who have incurable diseases, in a
vegetative state, are brain dead, especially those patients living only
through life support machines. YES! it indeed prolongs their life but it also
only lengthens their suffering and agony. The pain would only worsen
beyond their endurance and render exhaustion.

Plus Euthansia is not advised unless necessary, it’s a voluntary choice with
much consideration. Just like in reference to the Belgium Act of Euthanesia
in 2002 that in order to carry out Euthanesia they follow certain conditions
such as the patient must be in a medically futile condition of constant and
incurable physical or mental suffering that cannot be alleviated and he or
she has already considered his choice well and repeatedly.

Let’s take a look from a story of Britanny Maynard

Back in January 2014, after years of suffering from a debilitating headache
she found out that she has brain cancer which study shows that few
patients survive beyond three years regardless of the treatment course
they receive. Faced with limited options in her home state, Brittany and her
family chose to move to Oregon so she could access her death with dignity
law. She stated that it gave her an amount of relief that she can die on her
own terms, on when, where and how she will die.

Taking consideration of patients like Brittanny who suffer in torment

because of their underlying diseases, why can’t they be given the same
choice to die with dignity, freely, and legally so that they are able to relieve
their pain in the most humane way possible. Do they really have to endure
the pain until the end or even move to another state just to access death
with dignity?

So in conclusion, we hereby propose to give an option for them to be given

the peace they deserve…