Euthanasia should be legal in the United States. Euthanasia is the practice of painlessly putting to death people who have incurable, painful, or distressing diseases or handicaps. Although most religious groups believe that it is suicide or murder and immoral, people should still have the right to tell the nurse or whomever to pull the plug. People who have supported euthanasia in the past believe that it allows a person to die with dignity instead of being kept barely alive by artificial means (Abernethy, 430).
Everyday people are kept alive by life supporting machines. A person should be allowed a "natural death" instead of a prolonged death with medical equipment (Battin, p. 19). Doctors are supposed to ease the pain of people not prolong it (Battin, p. 19). Death is one of the few things that all people have in common. Basically, this means that there is a chance for everyone to face the decision of letting someone pass on in life. Euthanasia should be legalized so people will only have to think about the difficult decision of the present and not about the consequences of the future. People should be allowed to control their own death and make the decision themselves without having someone make it for them. I don't know anybody that wants there loved one suffering to stay alive when they know that he or she would be better off if they just pulled the plug. .
If the person who is ill is not able to make the decision then there should be a few options: a living will, the family's choice, and the doctor's choice. A living will should be allowed to control the person's life if the person is unable to make the decision for him or herself. If there is no living will, the family, consulting with a physician, should be allowed to decide for the patient. The one situation that is most controversial is a patient with no family or no family member qualified to make the decision. Some think the doctor should be able to make the decision for the patient.
