Morality of Euthanasia
Morality of Euthanasia"The third night that I roomed with Jack in our tiny double room, in
the solid-tumor ward of the cancer clinic of the National Institute of
Health in Maryland, a terrible thought occurred to me. Jack had a
melanoma in his belly, a malignant solid tumor that the doctors
guessed was the size of a softball. The doctors planned to remove the
tumor, but they knew Jack would soon die. The cancer had now spread
out of control. Jack, about 28, was in constant pain, and his doctor
had prescribed an intravenous shot, a pain killer, and this would
control the pain for perhaps two hours or a bit more. Then he would
begin to moan, or whimper, very low, as though he didn't want to wake
me. Then he would begin to howl, like a dog. When this happened, he
would ring for a nurse, and ask for the pain-killer. The third night
of his routine, a terrible thought occurred to me. 'If Jack were a
dog, I thought, what would be done to him?' The answer was obvious:
the pound, and the chloroform. No human being with a spark of pity
could let a living thing suffer so, to no good end." (James Rachel's
The Morality of Euthanasia)
The experience of Stewart Alsop, a respected journalist, who
died in 1975 of a rare form of cancer gave an example on the morality
of euthanasia. Before he died, he wrote movingly of his experiences
with another terminal patient. Although he had not thought much about
euthanasia before, he came to approve of it after sharing a room with
Jack. While growing up, each of us learns a large number of rules of
conduct. Which rules we learn will depend on the kind of society we
live in and the parents and the friends we have. We may learn to be
honest, to be loyal, and to work hard. Sometimes we learn a rule
without understanding its point. In most cases this may work out, for
the rule may be designed to cover ordinary circumstances, but when
faced with unusual situations, we may be in trouble. This situation
is the same with moral rules. Without understanding the rules, we may
come to think of it as a mark of virtue that we will not consider
making exceptions to. We need a way of understanding the morality
against killing. The point is not to preserve every living thing
possible, but to protect the interests of individuals to have the
right of choice to die.
People who oppose euthanasia have argued constantly doctors
have often been known to miscalculate or to make mistakes. Death is
final and irreversible; in some cases doctors have wrongly made
diagnostic errors during a check-up. Patients...
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