Euthanasia: Killing or Helping Essay -- Essays Paper

Euthanasia: Killing or Helping Is society playing the role of God or is the world so wrapped up in their lives that God no longer matters? Euthanasia has been around since the ancient Romans and Greeks and has been a highly debated subject just as it is today. In history and in arguments stated today is that â€Å"people are the created and not the Creator† (Gula 26). There are many things that society can argue about the subject of euthanasia but the main debate is that euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide is wrong. Society gets euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide confused because they both have to do with physicians tending to the patient’s death. Society is either for or against euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. It is debated throughout history, within the church, and even within the medical profession; however euthanasia is wrong. Euthanasia is a problem that has been facing people since the time of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. Manning states that the ancient Greeks and Romans preferred to die, then to go through the pain and suffering (Manning 6). During the time of the Romans and Greeks, euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide was a common, everyday thing. However, a group called the Pythagoreans opposed euthanasia back then because they believed that God valued the human life itself and the act of killing someone who is already suffering was considered disrespectful (Manning 6). Plato and Aristotle both opposed euthanasia for a couple of reasons. Plato opposed suicide, but on the other hand, he rejected that the right to take a life had only belonged to the gods (Manning 8-9). According to Manning, Plato believed when a person’s life was considered useless... ...at kind of relationship would that constitute for a physician? Euthanasia is a subject that society is not just going to let pass by them without society giving their points of view. Euthanasia is just another excuse for physician’s to be able to kill another human life that could still be worth living, just as abortion is seen. As society has grown since ancient times they have come across many more debates and many more reasons why euthanasia so be allowed or not allowed. If society allows such an act of degrading of a life, we will be taking life into our hands and will be leading into a whole different world. The main question that boggles many people’s minds is that if society allows this form of killing to go on then what is society going to let happen next? Is society taking life into our own hands or is our life taking us into its hands?