Euthanasia - 1 Painless, peaceful death. 2 The deliberate putting to death of a person suffering from a painful and incurable disease; mercy killing; also known as active euthanasia. 3 Death resulting from the cessation of heroic measures to prolong life; also known as passive euthanasia. (Webster's Dictionary of the English Language).
The topic of euthanasia, otherwise known as mercy killing, is not a new subject to the US or any country. The debate has been going on for decades, and like most controversial topics, no one conclusion can be made, or accepted by all. Some people say it is morally wrong to end someone's life on purpose, they consider it murder. Others feel euthanasia should be readily available to any one who requests it. Then there are the people in the middle, those who believe that only under certain circumstances should euthanasia be performed. I should fall somewhere in the last category. It is my personal opinion that euthanasia should be readily available to those who request it, but only be performed under very certain circumstances. I don't feel that euthanasia is really such a horrible process, but it can be if it is not properly restricted.
In present day America the idea of euthanisation isn't exactly something many people hold in high regard. In fact, if any practicing physician advertised his/her willingness to euthanise a patient, they probably wouldn't have any regular patients. I feel this is due to the fact that most people view euthanasia as "putting someone out of their misery," or "putting someone to sleep". Most people would equate this to a procedure humans perform on sick or maimed animals, and I, like most people most certainly would not like to be viewed in this light. That particular way of looking at it scares people, and this is where I think, at least, some of the problem lies. So, let's not look at it that way. Let's view it from a different point of view.
