Active Euthanasia Should Be Legalized Essay Example For Students

Active Euthanasia Should Be Legalized Essay Active Euthanasia Should Be LegalizedWhen the topic of euthanasia is discussed many people emphasis on the pain that the patient may be in, but what a patient thinks about their quality of life is often more important. Many people do not want to spend the last days or weeks of their life in a way that to them may seem undignified. In a hospital with tubes all over their body and on a machine that is, helping them breath is undignified to many. A man by the name of Dr. Harold once said, Having power to take control over their life and death can help people to feel that they can control their human dignity in their suffering. Sociologists Julia Addington-Hall and Clive Seale carried out an academic study into what patients with terminal cancer thought about dying. They said, Requests for euthanasia may indicate not that patients are giving up in the face of suffering, but that they are positively asserting their desire to control events. Around the world voluntary euthanasia is supported by the majority of people, for example: In the USA- the percentage who support voluntary euthanasia has grown from 37% in 1947 to 61% in 1999. In Australia- the percentage of those people who support has grown from 47% in 1962 to 78% in 1995. In Britain in 1996, a survey showed that 82% of British people agree with doctors helping patients to die if with an incurable disease. There was a poll taken in Britain in 1987 by a group who does not support euthanasia and they discovered to their surprise that 72% of those surveyed said that voluntary euthanasia should be legalized. Before you say what is right or wrong put yourself in their shoes, what if you where the one who had terminal cancer and only had a few weeks to live? Words/ Pages : 307 / 24