eptable in our society because it relieves the unnecessary pain and suffering of patients and their family. Suffering is a terrible thing and we have a clear duty to comfort those in need and to ease their pain when we can. Elderly people who are prone to painful diseases and medical problems should have the right to choose whether or not they want to live in agony or die peacefully. Mercy killing can end their pain in a non-traumatic way for themselves as well as their families'. By ending one's life before its natural end, is one is depriving oneself of a valuable period of good life? Is that last period of love and companionship with family and friends worth hanging on for? Even the most determined supporters of euthanasia hang on until the last minute; sometimes too long, and lose control. They, too, gather with their families and friends to say goodbye. There are important reunions and often farewell parties. Euthanasia supporters enjoy life, love and living, and their respect for the sanctity of life is as strong as anybody's. Yet they are willing, if their dying is distressing to them, to give up a few weeks or a few days at the very end and leave under their own control. Ultimately, the decision lies with the beholder. It is the right of a person to make his/her own choice, with some limitations. It is the doctor's responsibility to provide the patient with an accurate prognosis so that the patient may make an educated decisionEuthanasia although a major controversy of today can be seen throughout history and through literature of today. In the days of Socrates, Plato and the Stoics euthanasia was even permissible (Russell 42). The Greeks had a tradition that when all the old members of the society outlived their usefulness; they would go together and drink a deadly poison (Russell 42). Thus eliminating a burden on their families and on themselves. Euthanasia in literature is evident in John Steinbecks, Of Mice and Men. Candy a...
