aw. Maybe people should be allowed to die if they want to. But if so, it's not because they have an absolute right to dispose of themselves if they want to.(Brock 73) Only a fool would minimize the agony that many terminally ill patient endure. And there's no question that by letting them die on request we shorten the period of suffering. But we also shorten their lives. Can you seriously argue that the saving of pain is greater good than the saving of life? Or that presence of pain is worse than the loss of life? Of course, nobody likes to see a creature suffer, especially when the creature has requested a halt to the suffering. But we have to keep our priorities straight. Pro euthanasianists make it sound as though the superhuman efforts made to keep people alive are not worthy of human beings. What could be more respectful of human life, than to maintain life against all odds, and against all hope? All of life is a struggle and a gamble. At the gaming table of life, nobody ever knows what the outcome will be. " Indeed, humans are noblest when they persist in the face of the inevitable. Look at our literature. Reflect on our heroes. They are not those who have capitulated but those who have endured. No, there's nothing undignified against being hollowed out by a catastrophic disease, about writhing in pain, about wishing it would end. The indignity lies incapitulation".(Buchanan 208) ...
