The Difficulties of Writing a Euthanasia Essay
11K Euthanasia, or a “good death” as it is commonly referred to, rests on the “heavily argued” end of the paper topics specter. If you are going to write one, you’d better brace yourself for some significant amount of research.
What makes it so controversial? Quite expectedly, the moral bias. When it comes to taking someone else’s life, be it a bed-ridden old man or an unborn fetus, the degree of opposition of views raises above normal. The only way to mitigate this vortex of passion is through grounding your arguments on cold hard facts. How do you go about that? We can’t teach you how to write a perfect euthanasia essay, of course. There is no tried and tested way, and neither is there a magic formula for success. Our goal is to give you an insight and possibly send your brainstorming into the right direction.
What are the reasons for and against euthanasia?
The phenomenon was not named a “good death” for no reason. When the only thing a person can look forward to is relief from pain and suffering, the “good” part is well reasoned. Terminally ill patients can choose whether to end their lives on their own terms, just like those who choose to commit suicide. The comparison may be harsh, but it’s nonetheless true. Neither the law, nor the society condemn suicide. We don’t rush to save these people just to prosecute them later. And sure enough, there is no legal norm that prohibits taking your own life.
Additionally, it can be argued that depriving a suffering person from a means of relief is a violation of human rights.
Everything seems rather straightforward, right?
Wrong. The “against” party is represented not only by religious fanatics but also by reasonable people who see valid reasons for opposing it.
What are these reasons? Objectively, a threat that the power to conduct euthanasia will be abused. With the current state of medicine in the U.S., with its high costs and unbelievable profits, it seems possible that at some point, the “voluntary” part of euthanasia will be lost. An unsuccessfully performed clinical trial or surgery? A threat to profits? Any other possible implications? When money or careers are at stake, anything could happen.
Therefore, the primary concern is that adopting euthanasia as a human right will push the legislative system and moral norms down the slippery slope, at the end of which a human life will value as little as it did in the Medieval times.
The development of medicine, the appearance of innovative ways to control pain and make the last months of life as comfortable as possible are also reasons why the anti-euthanasia party is full of hope.
And of course, the lucidity issue. How lucid is a person that suffers from severe pain every day of the week to decide on the feasibility to end his or her own life? Will the pain and emotional stress cloud their judgment? Can a person that has taken the Hippocratic Oath rely on such judgment in giving a lethal injection?
These are the main “conventional” arguments for and against euthanasia. But we encourage you to look deeper. In no case will this suffice to write an in-depth piece, which you are expected to write.
And one last thing – in this kind of an essay, a personal story can be used, no matter how biased it is. But it should primarily serve the purpose of attracting attention and luring the reader into further reading. It shouldn’t serve as an argument to support your thesis statement.
In all other respects – the structure, the language, the formatting – treat this paper as any other. Don’t let the controversial topic scare you off. An academic paper is still an academic paper, which means there are established writing protocols and tips on how to optimize the process – which you can find on this blog among other sources.
