Is There Any Right to Die - Essay Example

Is There Any Right to Die? School Is There Any Right to Die? Euthanasia and its multiple forms has become one of the most discussed ethical issues so far. Is there such thing as the right to decide whether a person wants to live or die? This is the question that relates to a person’s specific worldview, religious beliefs, and perception of human role in this world. However, sometimes there is no hope for a person to keep living and the only thing left is constant pain; in this case, euthanasia seems to be the most reasonable way to stop the suffering, which is up to the person to decide.

“Is the existence within the confines of a hospital bed is a human perspective?” This question leads to an endless chain of contradictions; however, under a closer examination, it becomes obvious for everyone that such kind of existence can be barely called “life”. Nowadays medicine possesses a lot of tools, such as morphine, which are able to "facilitate" sufferings of deathly ill patients. In the meantime, the drugs change patient’s mind and psyche, which eliminates any personality features.

Hence, even though the drugs may cure and help the person to defeat the unbearable pain, still human personality is being destroyed by those medicals. According to a liberal measurement of human life value, the liberal policy of European and United States stated that the value of human life is secondary in comparison with a person’s will. This means that if a person can be considered as adequate, according to psychological evaluation of one, the person is responsible for one’s own decisions and actions, and therefore one’s decision must be respected by the rest of the society.

Hence, such person is eligible to do whatever one wants with his or hers own life and body, unless it causes any harm to other people and is prohibited legally (Seale, 1994). If to take a look at the issue from the personal point of view, it becomes obvious that the life has a meaning when pleasures prevail over sufferings; moreover, positive emotions are considered to be more meaningful than the negative ones. So euthanasia seems to be the only solution in some cases; for instance, when human’s life cannot be maintained in other way and suffering cannot be relieved except by death.

In short, if suffering is evil, how can we morally justify preservation of life, which has turned into a constant suffering? Of course, the moral dilemma related to life as something which a person cannot decide on also exists. The right to die is a controversial thing because of the fact that the right to live hasn’t been chosen as well, so human is given to live and therefore it is not for one to decide whether he or she wants to keep living. The ethical problem lies in the roots of all the arguments against euthanasia, which makes euthanasia one of those unsolvable dilemmas of modernity.

Such issues remain the matter of people’s personal subjective beliefs and views of them. References 1. Seale C., Addington-Hall J. (September 1994) Euthanasia: why people want to die earlier? Elsevier, 647–654.