Mason's+Letter

Dear Mr .  Smith, I would like to take this moment to thank you for all the insight you gave our class on euthanasia . I think that you clearly have a strong and educated opinion on the practice of euthanasia and I mostly agree with what your opinions but if at any point during my letter I too harshly disagree with any given point please do not take offense as it was not intended to be maliciou//s// in anyway .  I consider myself to be both a conservative as well as Christian and I believe that all life no matter in what condition it’s in life is precious and should be treated as something sacred .  Euthanasia should almost never be used to take a human life however I do believe that it’s important for people to be able to make their own decisions with regards to their body so if someone who is in extreme pain decides to take their own life by means of lethal injection I feel as though even if on my opinion it’s not always right I understand It .  In the end it is in fact their choice and who am I to tell them that the choice they made was the wrong one as I have never been in such a situation myself . Terry Shiavo was a young 27 year old living in Florida .  One day when terry was at home she fell into cardiac arrest <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> She was later found and rushed to a hospital where it was declared that she was in a vegetative state <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I believe that in this case terry Shiavo’s husband did the right thing as being biologically alive does not actually mean a person is living on my opinion <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> For me life is about being able to experience this great world in any way you can and all the ways you can and when you’re in a vegetative state the way Terry Schiavo was then your life was essentially taken from you and all you have is a husk with nothing else there <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> It could be said that terry shiavo was still “alive” when they took her off life support and that it is therefore murder and I understand this because for me it is hard to see such an unfortunate thing have happen but it was in this case an act of mercy and was most likely the choice that terry Schiavo would have made for herself had her husband not been there to make it for her <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Life and death for me in terms of taking one’s own life is not necessarily black and white <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> I would prefer someone to only take this drastic a measure even in extreme cases as a last resort and a last resort only having tried for years to cure the person of their ailment for as long as possible <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> This is one of the reasons that I believe Terry Shiavo’s husband made the correct choice by allowing her to die as he had waited years for her to come out of her coma and as all the doctors had told him that there was little hope that she ever would than in this case I believe he made the correct choice <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Living in that state was not living but even though terry shiavo was practically not living anymore it still is a sad thing that she died given that she still had a heart that was beating and despite her being in that state her family still loved her <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The Catholic Church believes that if death is imminent and without hope than you can do what Mr <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Shiavo did and allow the person to simply die without any outside help <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">It seems to me that you agree with the Catholic churches opinion of euthanasia in that it is basically wrong and that it is only ok for someone to die if done as the church had said was acceptable in that you could allow someone to die but not have a direct hand in their demise and stating that “It is permitted in conscience to take the decision to refuse forms of treatment" or simply put, to allow death to take you <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> I think that this is acceptable as dying like that while administering drugs for pain and suffering while that is going on is a sensible way to die without impeding the natural process of death <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> However when in situations even with drugs for pain life is still so painful and humiliating that death is the most humane option and in a situation like this can be the best choice for the person and their loved ones <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> On my opinion if the person is in this extreme pain than it should be their choice whether to live or die and even if they are catholic should not allow the church to influence their decision in this matter and that even though I believe the catholic church has a good view on the situations that these terminal patients face I simply think that the decision should be all the individuals <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> If the individual is incapable of speech or indicating what they desire than I believe that the family should be able to decide what would be best in regards to their health and again should think of the person first before the churches opinion even though the church can be majorly influential when it comes to these kinds of decisions <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Chris Hill was an active and adventurous young man from Australia who loved traveling and experiencing new things <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Chris had once road a camel across the desert sands of Egypt and seen the pyramids with his own two eyes <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> One day Chris had a hang gliding accident which crippled him from the neck down <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Chris was never able to recover from the experience and was depressed to the point where he decided to take his own <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Chris’s story is immensely saddening because here is a man whose life is full of fantastic things and now has been put in a situation where he cannot take part in all the joys his life once had <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Despite this I believe that Chris made a rushed decision in choosing to commit suicide <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Chris undervalued his life because of the loss of his ability do the many unique and exciting things he used to <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Losing one part of your life no matter how big does not mean that your life becomes pointless, Chris could have done tons of things that would have given his life purpose like becomes a public speaker or he could even have become a professor or done something that involved the mind instead of the body <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Chris was not a shell of a person whose only release from pain could be death, he had a life still in front of him and because of euthanasia his life was cut horribly short and he will never be able to see where his life could have gone <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The path Chris chose was a sad one, one where what could have been a life where Chris would have lived in happiness and fulfillment however this was not what happened and I believe that a lot of it had to do with Chris not taking his time with the decision itself <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Chris was clearly depressed and felt like there weren’t any options he had that would result in him leading a happy life and so he chose death as what seemed to him to be the only option <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> I believe that this kind of event should never occur as people like Chris who is depressed should not be allowed to after a relatively new and life changing injury go and fly to another country where he can take his own life in a fit of depression <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Pieter Admiraal the senior anesthesiologist at Reiner de Graff Gasthuis a hospital in the Dutch city of Delf says is an open supporter of active euthanasia and says that he does so “unashamedly” <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> This doctor says that he supports active euthanasia because in his eyes it is an act that is sometimes as he said “required” in order for the doctor to adequately assist the patient in their treatment <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> I believe that this man didn’t understand that death is not always the right way to go as there can often be other alternatives to giving up and having an immediate death, you can choose to not suffer by being given anesthetics that will reduce pain and still have a death in which you do not end your life prematurely <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> What Doctor Admiraal fails to recognize that I believe that you do is that if we begin down a road where people can simply be ill and choose to die then we start down a dark road which may end up making it so people can simply decide they want to go to a clinic to commit suicide <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> It also could end up that the doctor miss interprets what the disease is and whether it is terminal or not and because the patient is in pain decides that it would be best to use euthanasia and opts to die in order to end the suffering of the disease but instead of a terminal disease it was curable ailment then the doctor has just slain a person who was under the false impression that they were going to suffer a horrible fate and because of that lost their lives <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> A case similar to this happened to Doctor Jack Kevorkian who killed his patient under the impression she had a terminal illness that turned out to be a simple ailment <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Active euthanasia will only lead us down a path of death where suicide is romanticized and people can die without going through any process at all and simply calling a doctor and asking for the doctor to kill them <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Some would say that a disabled person has slim to no quality of life, that their life is not a life worth living, that death would be better for them as it would be a release from the horrible and painful life they are forced to endure but this is not the opinion of one Alison Davis who was born with Spina Bifida and chooses to live a life of success and fulfillment <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Alison was born with Spina Bifida so severe that it was recommended to her parents that they abandon her for dead <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Alison however was given a chance and her parents decided to ignore the experts and allow her to live <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Allison has undergone over twenty surgeries and she stated that her life was “at best uncertain” despite this she travels the world with her husband and earned an honors degree in sociology <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> She states that the killing of disabled children for the sake of them having a low quality of life is horrible and is reminiscent of Hilters Germany <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> I agree with Allison, there is no reason why society should dehumanize the handicapped by saying that they should die if they will not be able to live up to the same standards of life as average people <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> On my opinion the life of the handicapped is equally as valuable as the average person and they deserve to live as much as anyone else does <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I believe that euthanasia is mostly not a good choice when it comes to making that final decision <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">However in certain cases it can be acceptable if even when drugs can not completely ease your pain in that case you may use euthanasia to end the suffering faster and anyone who believes that people do not have the right to make there own decisions should take a step back and reorganize their priorties <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> For the most part Mr <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Smith I believe you have the right idea in that euthanasia is bad and our opinions really only differ because you believe that it is wrong in all situations <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> On my opinion euthanasia should be used only when attempts to ease the pain of a suffering patients death has all but failed and the agony is simply too much and that most of the time death is not the right choice <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">.