Abstract

"A belief in the sanctity of life is not necessarily in conflict with a willingness to let go of this life when the body can no longer preserve without the artificial help of machines. There is a time to be born and a time to die" (Wekesser 143). Society has found itself in a legal and moral controversy.  Do we allow people to murder themselves and grant them “mercy” from their barbaric sufferings? Or do we try everything medically possible to sustain the life of all patients? By defining euthanasia, one can understand why legally, communities all over the world are split on laws regarding assisted suicide. An American physician named Jack Kevorkian is the first to push for society to take the appropriate steps necessary to legalize euthanasia. Through the use of euthanasia, a terminally ill patient deserves the right to freely choose death over an extended life of agony and affliction.

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