Thinking Critically 1.3
Life and death
This article is about an elderly person who is 80 years old. He argues that he has had a happy life with ups and downs and now he feels like is time to leave the world. He suffers from a variety of illness such as prostate cancer which makes him have pee far more often and with much more difficult. He also suffers from a form of skin cancer All these problems he faces are treatable but at the same time costly. He is concerned that pretty soon he is not going to be able to look after himself and he will have to move to live with one of his sons. He says that he doesn't want to move out of his town since he has been living there all his life; plus, he does not want to live around strangers. All he wants to do is give the rest of his saving to his grandchildren so they can use it to pay tuition at college instead of spending it all on his drugs. But what he really wants is to end his life. He claims he has lived long enough and is too tired to continue with the life he is having. He wishes to finish his life even committing a suicide but he does not do it as it will be considering a suicidal and will be added to the statics. He finally do not do it but he wishes there are options for people like him who feels their lives are useless and rather be on the other side resting for ever in peace.
1. Should people have the moral right to end their lives if they so please?
It may seem right in the eyes of this person who is living such situation in his life. He argues that he has lived long enough and is tired. He also claims that is illness is killing himself and do not want to waste money paying for people who can take of him neither wants to move to where his kids are. as the book states in pg. 4 “ a value is used to denote the worth of an item, a person’s values can be said to have a specific worth for them. It can be expressed in two ways but for this case we case, we can relate this person’s situation to end his life to intrinsic value as it states that “ a value is a good thing in itself and is pursued for its own sake, whether anything good comes from that pursuit or not”(pg 4). As we know this person wants to end his life because he is tired and does not want to bother anyone to take care of a ill old person; therefore, his pursue is to end his life so he can rest happily after. In the other hand, killing yourself is not seem right by society although of the arguments this person may have. Killing yourself will result in a value conflict as killing is considered wrong and even more when it’s a suicide. We believe that is definitely not right killing yourself, the right time will come for everyone in the right moment.
2. Does being near the end of one’s life make the decision to end it justified?
It depends on the situation that person is facing. If for instance, a person is in a vegetative state and its being plugged to this machines that keep the person alive, we will consider to end his/her life as there is no hope for this person to recover and be back to normal life again. However, this will be a hard decision to make as it bring value conflicts as one is taking away someone’s life but considering his/her situation the decision taken could be right and appropriate it. For people who are very ill and the only option to stop suffering from their illness and feel their lives are near to end, the decision to end their lives is not justified because as mentioned above we believe that every one’s time will come when the time is right in the life cycle. Ending up your life is not the solution and it not perceived as right in society and bring lot of value conflicts.
3. What might the phrase “right to die” mean?
We believe that it means to end his/her life when they feel that their lives are useless for reasons like critical illness or age. So these people may think that the best way to avoid pain and suffering from their sickness is to end their lives; therefore, they may argue that they have right to die considering their painful situation of being sick of diseases that do not have cure or being in treatments and medications for life in order to survive, or just because they are old and feel tired and do not feel like others to take care and look after him.
4. Do people have the right to seek assistance in dying?
We do not think so. We think that assisting someone to die is actually committing a murder, therefore is not right to seek assistance because the person who assists to die the other one will end up in prison with a number of charges.
5. Do people have the right to give assistance in dying?
No, people do not have the right to give assistance in dying because it will be considered a murder and this person will have problems with legal authorities and even may end up in prison for life. In addition, it is no ethical in doing so. In contrast, this person should give assistance but in terms of looking for professional assistance in case this person is really ill and needs treatment or medication or physiologist in case this person is mentally ill and needs an specific treatment so ending his/her life will not be an option for them.
6. What kind of restrictions, if any, should there be on assisted suicide?
There should not be any restrictions on assisted suicide as it is not considered right in the eyes of the public and society in general, and it’s not legal. It could however be argued that in certain circumstances a person should be allowed to take his or her own life, but if society took any steps to make it legal for even certain people to kill themselves such a rule would automatically discriminate other groups and anger many more.
This article is about an elderly person who is 80 years old. He argues that he has had a happy life with ups and downs and now he feels like is time to leave the world. He suffers from a variety of illness such as prostate cancer which makes him have pee far more often and with much more difficult. He also suffers from a form of skin cancer All these problems he faces are treatable but at the same time costly. He is concerned that pretty soon he is not going to be able to look after himself and he will have to move to live with one of his sons. He says that he doesn't want to move out of his town since he has been living there all his life; plus, he does not want to live around strangers. All he wants to do is give the rest of his saving to his grandchildren so they can use it to pay tuition at college instead of spending it all on his drugs. But what he really wants is to end his life. He claims he has lived long enough and is too tired to continue with the life he is having. He wishes to finish his life even committing a suicide but he does not do it as it will be considering a suicidal and will be added to the statics. He finally do not do it but he wishes there are options for people like him who feels their lives are useless and rather be on the other side resting for ever in peace.
1. Should people have the moral right to end their lives if they so please?
It may seem right in the eyes of this person who is living such situation in his life. He argues that he has lived long enough and is tired. He also claims that is illness is killing himself and do not want to waste money paying for people who can take of him neither wants to move to where his kids are. as the book states in pg. 4 “ a value is used to denote the worth of an item, a person’s values can be said to have a specific worth for them. It can be expressed in two ways but for this case we case, we can relate this person’s situation to end his life to intrinsic value as it states that “ a value is a good thing in itself and is pursued for its own sake, whether anything good comes from that pursuit or not”(pg 4). As we know this person wants to end his life because he is tired and does not want to bother anyone to take care of a ill old person; therefore, his pursue is to end his life so he can rest happily after. In the other hand, killing yourself is not seem right by society although of the arguments this person may have. Killing yourself will result in a value conflict as killing is considered wrong and even more when it’s a suicide. We believe that is definitely not right killing yourself, the right time will come for everyone in the right moment.
2. Does being near the end of one’s life make the decision to end it justified?
It depends on the situation that person is facing. If for instance, a person is in a vegetative state and its being plugged to this machines that keep the person alive, we will consider to end his/her life as there is no hope for this person to recover and be back to normal life again. However, this will be a hard decision to make as it bring value conflicts as one is taking away someone’s life but considering his/her situation the decision taken could be right and appropriate it. For people who are very ill and the only option to stop suffering from their illness and feel their lives are near to end, the decision to end their lives is not justified because as mentioned above we believe that every one’s time will come when the time is right in the life cycle. Ending up your life is not the solution and it not perceived as right in society and bring lot of value conflicts.
3. What might the phrase “right to die” mean?
We believe that it means to end his/her life when they feel that their lives are useless for reasons like critical illness or age. So these people may think that the best way to avoid pain and suffering from their sickness is to end their lives; therefore, they may argue that they have right to die considering their painful situation of being sick of diseases that do not have cure or being in treatments and medications for life in order to survive, or just because they are old and feel tired and do not feel like others to take care and look after him.
4. Do people have the right to seek assistance in dying?
We do not think so. We think that assisting someone to die is actually committing a murder, therefore is not right to seek assistance because the person who assists to die the other one will end up in prison with a number of charges.
5. Do people have the right to give assistance in dying?
No, people do not have the right to give assistance in dying because it will be considered a murder and this person will have problems with legal authorities and even may end up in prison for life. In addition, it is no ethical in doing so. In contrast, this person should give assistance but in terms of looking for professional assistance in case this person is really ill and needs treatment or medication or physiologist in case this person is mentally ill and needs an specific treatment so ending his/her life will not be an option for them.
6. What kind of restrictions, if any, should there be on assisted suicide?
There should not be any restrictions on assisted suicide as it is not considered right in the eyes of the public and society in general, and it’s not legal. It could however be argued that in certain circumstances a person should be allowed to take his or her own life, but if society took any steps to make it legal for even certain people to kill themselves such a rule would automatically discriminate other groups and anger many more.