The issue of whether or not people should be put to sleep, or killed, when in a severe condition has a very simple answer, in my thoughts, and that would be no because each person controls his or her own fate and their own will power to survive in the world. If a person was in a coma, wouldn't that show that he or she had avoided death and now is fighting to become conscious again? Any sign of life shows a fight for survival and though it might be a very close relative telling the doctors to end the suffering of their love ones, the choice of death should really only be in the hand of the one person who is fighting for life themselves. Though putting people to sleep is not necessarily a bad idea when they feel they shouldn't be alive anymore, ending someone's life without their knowledge is a thing that should be avoided at all cost and that goes for the people in comas as well.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Choice of Death
In one of my classes, we were discussing the issue of choosing death when given the fact that the person was in a coma or highly critical conditions and the relatives had no more money to take care of the person anymore. When the teacher asked who would put the person to sleep, about 80% of the people in the classroom raised their hands and the rest didn't. With the increasing amount of new drugs and medical issues now-a-days, many people are starting to believe that putting relatives to sleep when they are suffering severely is an okay thing to do. After the teacher told people to raise their hands and the votes were scored, he said that one girl in his other class years ago was the only one to raise her hand to support not putting the relatives to sleep. The reason for that being so was because she was the one in a coma and that was her situation practically and her family chose to keep her alive and now she is getting her college degree. So the teacher told our class to look at that idea and think about it more carefully.
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There are several interesting aspects about this topic. The first is the socially formed idea of putting someone “to sleep”. Calling it this gives it a much less privative notion than killing a relative. A simple thing such as naming this prentice and word choice helps one side strengthen their argument.
ReplyDeleteAnother aspect that is interesting about this is how people’s personal background may play a role. Just how you mentioned how with new advancements in medical technologies people have a different view on this subject, it is important to think about how people’s views on death, and faith in today’s society also play a role in their view on this subject.
This subject is really interesting to me because a lot of research has come up about "physician assisted suicide" and actually putting "people to sleep" who are alive and making the decision for themselves. This is an interesting spin on this topic being who should be able to decide who is eligible to be put to death by a physician and who is coherent or not coherent enough to make this decision. Should certain groups of people be helped to death? Whether they are conscious or not? I think this is the same idea as should a baby that it is shown will have complications be put to death by abortion? This debate will continue to happen but has many arguments included in it the main one being "quality of life".
ReplyDeleteThat must have been a powerful feeling for that girl to see how many people would choose to put their loved ones to sleep knowing that it could have been her. This example shows how people's background can influence their opinion, which shows how different cultures can have similar opinions on things.
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