Euthanasia Is The Painless Killing Of Someone - 1408 Words

Would someone want to die miserably or to die without pain? Euthanasia is the painless killing of someone that is suffering from a disease or something that is incurable. â€Å"The concept of dying with one’s personhood intact is often referred to as a â€Å"Socratic death.† In today’s parlance, it is often called â€Å"dying with dignity† (â€Å"Dying with Dignity† 1996; Solovy 1999)† (Patel 38). In Greek, euthanasia literally means a good death. There are also many different versions of euthanasia. The one that is legal in the United States is physician aid in dying (PAD) or assisted suicide. Active euthanasia is when one person is brought to death by an act, and passive euthanasia is when someone leaves the person to die. There are also voluntary†¦show more content†¦Euthanasia should be legal in all parts of the United States because adult citizens have the right to die, the majority of Americans support euthanasia, and d ue to prohibitive medical costs, it makes sense financially. To begin with, in the United States, Americans are meant to believe they have the freedom to do what they want, so why can the adult citizens not be able to choose the right to die? For many of the citizens it is hard to see a family member or friend die in a slow, painful way. There are many stories about patients that slowly die and possibly one of the most famous story is about Karen Ann Quinlan. Karen was only twenty-two when she was in a coma. On April 15, 1975 she was out at a party, and after drinking alcohol and possibly taking tranquilizers, she was found without a pulse. She was taken to a hospital in New Jersey where she was hooked up to a respirator. Her conditions quickly declined and within a few days, she curled up and was considered to be in a PVS (Persistent Vegetative State). After a month had passed, there were no signs of recovery and her family asked to have Karen disconnected from the respirator. The hospital refused this because Karen was not conscious t o make a decision for herself and her parents could not do it on her behalf. Karen’s parents took their case to court. The New Jersey Supreme Court told the hospital that Karen was to be