Euthanasia

Topic: Euthanasia General Purpose: To Persuade Specific Purpose: I want to persuade my audience to be against euthanasia. Thesis: Legalizing Euthanasia Central Idea In Hippocratic Oath, Hippocrates as a father of medicine swears, â€Å"I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan† (National Library of Medicine, p. 6).In other words, Hippocrates was against euthanasia. According to the Dictionary. om the definition of euthanasia is â€Å"the act of putting to death painlessly or allowing to die, as by withholding extreme medical measures, a person or animal suffering from an incurable, especially painful, disease or condition† (Dictionary. com, p. 1). It is also called a mercy killing, some people think that this is a good decision and some don’t. I personally, believe that this is not right; an individual should go into the afterlife naturally. 1. On one side there are people that justify this act as helping a terminally il l individual end his/her sufferings.For example, when an individual was in a house fire and burnt sixty percent of his skin and is going to die but he chooses euthanasia in order to stop the pain. In that case he will die eventually and there are many painkillers that can soothe his pain and help him spend more time with his family. Another case is when a person has been in vegetative state for a long time and eventually the relatives decide to turn the machines off and let the individual die.This is a very sensitive case because if a person didn’t want to die but didn’t have a living will, legally their spouse can pull the plugs off even if the person’s parents would be against it. And let’s not forget that technically if a brain shows a minimum of activity, the person is still considered alive. I consider turning off the machine is same as giving up on a person. 2. On the other side, there are people that are against it, including me, I consider it as m anslaughter, even though an ill person is agreed to die.It is also against my religion, all humans are made in God’s image and God gave us life so we should respect it. At this moment, euthanasia is illegal in every state in the U. S. , not counting two states like Oregon and Washington. In Oregon they have an act called Oregon Death with Dignity Act and in Washington State they have the same act, except it is called the Washington Death with Dignity Act. (Wikipedia, p. 19).I am against legalizing euthanasia because there are some people that are not in sound mind, they may have suicidal thoughts and they will ask their doctor or people around them to help them stop their pain. If euthanasia will be legal some people will be forced to sign their consent to death, when he/she doesn’t know what he/she is signing; for example, a man in a nursing home that cannot read, or hear anymore is asked to sign the consent to his death, he will do it because he will trust people aro und him, people that take care of him.He will go along the process because he wouldn’t even understand what is going on. The reason why people would do that is when they are tired of him or they spend too much money on him so they will try get rid of him, I know it sounds awful but you will be surprised what people are capable of doing because of the money. Also, like I mentioned before, euthanasia is against Hippocratic Oath that every doctor takes before they get their license, in other words, it is against doctor’s moral responsibilities.When we think about euthanasia being legal in every state there would be many horrible cases that we cannot even think of. 3. You probably have a question on where it started. Well according to the History. com Adolf Hitler came up with this idea (History. com, p. 1). He ordered to kill all handicapped and mentally ill children. In addition, after that he moved on to adults and senior population. Hitler called it mercy killing becau se supposedly he was helping people to get out of their â€Å"misery† but it was a way of saving money.I believe that euthanasia is not right, no matter from what angles you look at it, it is manslaughter and as a human being I would not follow Hitler’s way of dealing with sick and dependant people. We should respect life that was given to us by God and end it in a natural way because this is how we were made.ReferencePage North, Michael. â€Å"Greek Medicine | Hippocrates | The Oath. †Ã‚  National Library of Medicine – National Institutes of Health. 24 June 2010. Web. 14 Nov. 2011. <http://www. nlm. nih. gov/hmd/greek/greek_oath. html> â€Å"Euthanasia | Define Euthanasia at Dictionary. com.Dictionary. com | Find the Meanings and Definitions of Words at Dictionary. com. Web. 14 Nov. 2011. <http://dictionary. reference. com/browse/euthanasia>. â€Å"Hitler Suspends Euthanasia Program — History. com This Day in History — 8/18/19 41. â€Å"History. com — History Made Every Day — American & World History.A&E Television Network. Web. 14 Nov. 2011. <http://www. history. com/this-day-in-history/hitler-suspends-euthanasia-program>. â€Å"Suicide Legislation. †Ã‚  Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 4 Nov. 2011. Web. 14 Nov. 2011. <http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Suicide_legislation>. Euthanasia Good day to the teacher and my fellow learners, my speech topic for today is on legalising euthanasia. Imagine yourself being unable to walk, unable to see, and can barely breathe let alone speak. You are in such unbearable pain that you can’t even cry. Your life was well lived all those years before but now, there is no way that you could function without assistance. You think and feel as if your life has no meaning. Although your family is there for your every step of the way you begin to think, could ending your life be the answer to the pain? Well in all reality this isn’t something anyone needs to imagine. This is a real situation for many, many people. These people should be able to make their own choices and have control of their own lives. Everyone has the right to choose how they want to live and die. First of all, deciding if you want to be alive or not is a personal decision. Neither the doctors nor the government has the power to decide if you should live or not. Since it is not their life and they are not in your situation, they cannot make that kind of decision for you. It might sound like suicide, but again, that is our problem, not theirs. They give us the liberty to decide our job, our family, our religion, and even our sex preference. Why should they not give us the right to decide if we want to live or not? That should be the first right before all the ones I have mentioned. It is not logical that we can choose in all those other decisions if we cannot first choose to live or die. It has been argued that for people on life support systems and people with long standing diseases causing much pain and distress, euthanasia is a better choice. It helps in relieving them from pain and misery. In cases like terminal cancers when the patient is in much pain and when people associated with them also are put through a lot of pain and misery, it is much more practical and humane to grant the person their wish to end their own life in a relatively painless and merciful way. Everyone has the right to choose how they want to live and die. Euthanasia is perceived by other people as the answer to their want of a quality life. Spending the rest of your life on a hospital bed, unable to walk, and unable to do the things you normally do, doesn’t define a good quality of life. After all, it is the patient who got to decide how he or she wants to live his life. Euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide is the best thing a doctor can offer to a dying patient since he or she cannot offer a patient something that’ll make his condition better. How can say that your life is not worth living anymore? No one but you can decide on this matter. Life and death is a personal decision. Your family, friends, the doctors, and even the government can’t help you decide. Death is a final decision, a final destination. Think about it, euthanasia is about giving people the right to choose how they want to live and die and it also stops the person from having a bad quality of life. Goeie dag vir die onderwyser en my mede-leerders, my toespraak onderwerp vir vandag op te wettig genadedood. Verbeel jou nie in staat is om te loop, nie in staat om te sien, en kan skaars asemhaal laat staan praat. Jy is in so ‘n ondraaglike pyn wat jy kan nie eens huil. Jou lewe was goed geleef al die jare voor, maar nou is daar geen manier wat jy kan funksioneer sonder hulp. Jy dink en voel asof jou lewe het geen betekenis nie. Hoewel jou familie is daar vir jou elke stap van die manier waarop jy begin om te dink, kan die beeindiging van jou lewe wees om die antwoord op die pyn? Wel in alle werklikheid dit is nie iets wat iemand nodig het om te dink. Dit is ‘n werklike situasie vir baie, baie mense. Hierdie mense moet in staat wees om hul eie keuses te maak en om beheer oor hul eie lewens het. Elkeen het die reg om te kies hoe hulle wil leef en sterf. Eerste van alles, besluit of jy wil om te leef of nie, is ‘n persoonlike besluit. Nog die dokters en die regering het die mag om te besluit of jy moet leef of nie. Want dit is nie hul lewe en hulle is nie in jou situasie, kan hulle nie maak dat die soort van besluit vir jou. Dit mag dalk klink soos selfmoord, maar weer, dit is ons probleem, nie hulle s'n. Hulle gee ons die vryheid om ons werk te besluit, ons familie, ons godsdiens, en selfs ons seks voorkeur. Hoekom moet hulle nie gee ons die reg om te besluit of ons wil om te lewe of nie? Dit moet die eerste reg voor al die mense wat ek genoem het nie. Dit is nie logies dat ons kan kies om in al die ander besluite as ons kan nie eers kies om te leef of sterf. Dit is aangevoer dat vir die mense op die lewe ondersteuning stelsels en mense met ‘n lang siektes veroorsaak baie pyn en kommer, genadedood is ‘n beter keuse. Dit help met die verligting van hulle van pyn en ellende. In gevalle soos terminale kanker wanneer die pasient in baie pyn en wanneer mense wat verband hou met hulle ook gestel word deur ‘n baie pyn en ellende is, is dit baie meer praktiese en menslike aan die persoon verleen hulle hul eie lewe te eindig in ‘n relatief pynloos en barmhartige manier. Elkeen het die reg om te kies hoe hulle wil leef en sterf. Genadedood is waargeneem deur ander mense as die antwoord op hul gebrek aan ‘n kwaliteit lewe. Die besteding van die res van jou lewe op ‘n hospitaal bed, nie in staat om te loop, en nie die dinge wat jy gewoonlik doen om te doen, definieer nie ‘n goeie gehalte van die lewe. Na alles, dit is die pasient wat het om te besluit hoe hy of sy wil he dat sy lewe te lei. Genadedood of geneesheer-geassisteerde selfmoord is die beste ding wat ‘n dokter kan bied aan ‘n sterwende pasient sedert hy of sy kan nie ‘n pasient iets wat sal maak sy toestand beter te bied. Hoe kan se dat jou lewe nie die moeite werd is nie? Niemand, maar jy kan besluit oor hierdie saak. Lewe en dood is ‘n persoonlike besluit. Jou familie, vriende, die dokters, en selfs die regering kan nie help om te besluit. Die dood is ‘n finale besluit neem, ‘n finale bestemming. Dink daaroor, genadedood is oor gee mense die reg om te kies hoe hulle wil leef en sterf en dit het ook tot stilstand kom die persoon van ‘n slegte gehalte van die lewe.