Persuasive on Euthanasia should be legalized as it is beneficial or similar - Research Paper Example

Let me still glow.” (14). The poem was written by an African American poet-librarian name Dudley Randall in 1973. This poem has since then became one of the most famous poems against euthanasia, as signified by its lines that condemn taking lives of others. The second line, “I pray you kindly killers/ Never conspire death to set me free (1, 2)” and “Even though I turn such traitor to myself/ as I beg to die do not accomplice me” (9, 10), these lines tell the reader that the will to live is so strong that you, a person who is supposed to make decisions especially when mercy killing is being considered, should not and would not let him die in whatever circumstances.

It should be known that mercy killing is a last option. Mercy killing is only considered when the patient is in a severe circumstance, usually when the patient is in a vegetative state. The vegetative state is medically considered when one person is “not aware of their surroundings not aware of bodily sensations, such as feeling pleasure or pain, not able to follow and understand speech, not able to have thoughts, memories, emotions, and intentions of any kind” (NHS UK). And it should be known that euthanasia is medically defined as “a deliberate intervention undertaken with the express intention of ending a life, to relieve intractable suffering” (Harris NM). . The name Terry Schiavo would probably come to mind when the word euthanasia comes up.

She was the famous woman who suffered a heat attack in 1991 and was a vegetable since then. The jury and the judge have awarded money to Schiavo’s husband but in the end, on 2005, the American people have decided to end her life because of financial and psychological considerations and because the husband has said that his “wife wouldn't have wanted to live in her condition -- what Florida courts have deemed a "persistent vegetative state.” (cnn.com,). This trial has stirred people’s notions about what’s right and wrong, provoking people to ask questions.

The reason why this poem is so successful is that it tugs the correct heartstrings for most people, and because of that, even if it paints the situation with unkind words, it wins because “Whatever produces the greatest satisfaction for the greatest number of people is good.”, which is basically the premise of utilitarianism. However, mercy killing can be justified because of the same thoughts: the mere notion of being a “…., a mute shelf/ of glucose, bottled blood, machinery (12, 13)” can put any one in a very compromising position even if the patient could not feel anything.

That’s where the question of life comes in: does being supported by these machines to prolong a vegetative existence constitute to being alive? There are two kinds of euthanasia as defined by medicine: it can be voluntary or involuntary euthanasia (Harris NM). Voluntary euthanasia is when the doctor “aids the patient in taking his life and involuntary when one intentionally kills another person because he was motivated by feelings of compassion or mercy” (Gorsuch). This is where Dudley Randall’s poem’s weakness comes in: