Modern medical technology has made it possible to extend the lives of many people far beyond when they would have died in the past. The prelude of death for some people ensures a long and painful fall where one loses control both physically and emotionally. Various forms of modern technology such as respirators, oxygen tanks, and a variety of medications can be used to prolong life. Some individuals embrace the time that modern technology buys them. Others find the loss of control overwhelming and frightening. They may want their loved ones to remember them as they were; they do not want to be remembered as they have become. To the terminally ill, death is the last hope of maintaining any remnants of dignity left to them in a life where there is no longer any control and is the only escape from a life where pain rules their existence. Some people feel since there is no help for these types of people; that a physician should be able to perform a mercy killing. Yet mercy killing is not allowed in the United States and should be legalized. .
Mercy killing is the practice of killing or permitting the death of a hopelessly sick or injured individual (person or animal) in a relatively painless way. Mercy killings raise many issues, legal and ethical. These issues include things such as its similarities to suicide, whether it would be an easy way out for doctors or whether life is a "gift from God".
Mercy killing is far different from suicide. Suicide can be committed by any random person in society. Unlike mercy killing, suicide is not based on a person's physical state of health. According to sociologist Emile Durkheim, a person who commits suicide often times because of anomie. Anomie has to do with how well a person is accepted in society. Suicide reflects a non-acceptance of change and an unwillingness to face life. Unlike mercy killings, it is an act based on hopelessness and despondency towards life.