Euthanasia

Posted by Robert Sharp May 21, 2006

In the Seventh Grade, my history teacher showed the film "The Day After," a film depciting a nuclear war. I was terrified. The whole world could end? I could die in a flash? It was a taste of mortality that frankly scared me for years. Shortly after seeing the film, I told my mother that I wished I had never been born.

I did not mean that I wanted to die. Instead, I felt that a life that would end in violent death was not worth living. Of course, I greatly overestimated the chances of a nuclear war occurring. Yet I still wonder about my basic premise. If you knew how and when you would die, what would you do?

Assume you have a terminal illness. You know not only that you will die within a year, but also that the last few months will be very painful. Perhaps you would live as much as possible while you could. But what would you do when those last months began? Would you end it quickly in order to avoid the inevitable painful death? Should you do so? Or should you bear it stoically because life is precious?

I still do not know the answer, and I hope I never have to make such a decision. However, I can think of many situations in which I would rather be dead than live a certain way. Senility is one such condition.

So I suppose I do believe in euthanasia. Modern medicine allows us to keep people alive when they would naturally pass away. We can force a heart to beat, lungs to breathe. What we cannot force is quality of life, and without that, what's the point?