1.Introduction The purpose of The Bill of Rights was to “address any concerns that the Constitution did not mention” (bill of rights). It was written to protect citizens from excessive government power. Supporters of the Constitution realized that adding a bill of rights to the document was a safer option rather than creating another Constitution. This document was written in December 15, 1791 by James Madison. The Tenth Amendment: Any power not given to the government is given to the people. The Tenth Amendment allows people their natural rights and they shouldn’t be taken away or rejected. There was a court case from “South Carolina v. Baker 1988” which had removed the federal tax exemption for interest earned on unregistered state bond and it violated the Tenth Amendment (Vile).
Another court case was “National League of Cities v. Usery 1976” where the employees got paid minimum wage and had overtime pay for those working more than 40 hours, that invalidated the Tenth Amendment (Vile). An issue that is controversial is euthanasia. Euthanasia is when people assist you in dying, it’s usually performed to end suffrage and pain. There are “two classifications, indirect and direct” (euthanasia). In indirect euthanasia death is brought to you. You are prescribed a large enough dose of medication that can kill you. Then there is direct euthanasia where your death is caused by a physician whether it was “voluntarily, involuntarily, or nonvoluntarily” (euthanasia).
Voluntarily you have a choice, nonvoluntarily you have no say in whether you want to die or not. Those who are brain dead go into the nonvoluntary choice because they aren’t able to make a decision, therefore the doctors go on without a consent. In involuntary euthanasia, you chose to live, but killed regardless of your decision (Binding). There are people who believe that euthanasia is okay because it ends the patient’s pain. Others may argue that euthanasia shouldn’t be allowed because doctors shouldn’t have the right to assist you in your death.
2. Side A The 10th Amendment is any power not given to the government is given to the people (Vile). There are people who believe euthanasia should not be allowed because doctors shouldn’t have the right to assist you in your death. People believe that if they legalize euthanasia in their certain state, that the patient will always want to have euthanasia as their number one choice and will never look at the bright side of having to get better and live. Therefore, the patient that is sick will no longer think of all the other choices he/she has, causing the person to end their life.
Religious people are also against this, “they see euthanasia as a sin and a crime regardless of how sick you are or what your condition is” (right to die). “Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland” currently have euthanasia legalized (Carey). Many people argue that euthanasia should not be a patient’s number one choice. The patient should not doublethink about having to live or not. There are patients who would rather die than to live in pain only because they think it’s okay that they’re sick because they have the ability to be assisted in their death by doctors and all they have to do is ask to be given an overdose of a certain medication.
There is no such thing as a life not worth living. Everyone should be happy they have a life, whether you have any diseases, disabilities, and no matter the age. Someone out there is dying and there shouldn’t be someone at the doctors asking to be given an overdose of some sort of medication. Many believe that euthanasia is considered a suicide because you are killing yourself. “Disabled people, elderly people, adults made vulnerable by terminal and other illnesses, and now children are being told that their lives are not worth living” (Fitzpatrick). According to Dr. Kevin Fitzpatrick, an anti-euthanasia advocate, many kids are coming in and asking to be killed, maybe because of their illness.
They don’t feel like they belong or fit in with everyone else around them. There are people arguing that euthanasia should only be allowed for people with serious disorders and not to someone “who is suffering from depression or schizophrenia” (Carey). In an article from La Times, Benedict Carey explains that many people go to hospitals or clinics with depression and they want to be given the choice of euthanasia. “People who got assistance to die often sought help from doctors they had not seen before, and many used what the study called a ‘mobile end-of-life clinic’…” (Carey).
The bad part about that is that there are uncertified nurses and doctors prescribing medication, or the patient doesn’t get what he/she wants with a certified doctor so they go to that specific clinic to give them what they want, and that’s death. Being a certified doctor means that you actually went to school to study and become a doctor to assist people in their death. An uncertified doctor means you don’t know what you’re doing, you are just prescribing people medications and tricking patients that you know what you’re doing.
3. Side B Many people believe that euthanasia should be considered a choice and that it’s okay because it ends a person’s pain. According to an article in The New York Times, Assisted Suicide Study Questions Its Use for Mentally Ill states, “Laws in the United States, passed in five states, restrict doctor-assisted suicide to mentally competent adults with terminal illnesses only, not for disorders like depression and schizophrenia” (Carey). People believe that doctors are just “going around the hospitals telling patients that comes in with a cold or something small to consider euthanasia,” but in reality the patients are the ones asking for it (Wardle). Doctors study to assist you in your death, they are certified to help you get over your pain and to give you what you ask for.
Many people agree that having euthanasia as a choice is good because it gives the ability for you to chose death over life and not have your family come visit you and see you in such pain. Doctor- Assisted suicide is a lot easier for your family to handle rather than “coming in and watch you deteriorate” (Wardle). Doctor assisted suicide helps the person that is suffering. In an article from The Columbia Chronicle Lisa Wardle states, “In the case of those in vegetative states… they may wish to die and aren’t able to voice their opinion about the matter” (Wardle). Euthanasia should be considered to people who are no longer able to physically move or speak (Doyal).
In another article from US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health states, “On the other hand, if death is in the best interests of some patients—if the withdrawal of life sustaining treatment can be said to be of benefit in this case—then death constitutes a moral good for these patients” (Doyal). Sometimes patients don’t want to chose euthanasia, but they have to because they no longer want to suffer. If the patient is no longer able to do physical activities then why should the patient still want to chose life over death?
Many people look at euthanasia as something bad, but in reality it’s helping people. People believe that it’s giving them what they want and that is death because the patient feels like if they can no longer move or get any better then what’s the whole point of staying alive? A lot of people might agree with the fact that euthanasia should be considered a choice because number one it’s the life they choose to live and number two if people would never want to consider euthanasia then why does it exist? It exists because people actually consider it because they see it as “helpful”.
4. Conclusion My opinion on Euthanasia is that it should be allowed. Euthanasia should be considered a choice because when people don’t have the ability to move anymore then why should the person still live. The person asking to be euthanised knows what they are asking for, they know that they aren’t able to move anymore or they know they won’t get any better.
So when someone goes to the hospital/doctor they ask for the medication because they want it. Although the patient’s family might not agree with the choice they made, they will still support it because they are suffering and they no longer want to live like that. Their family and friends don’t want to see them like that so they have no choice but to only support them and stick with them through the whole process.