ever have to make a decision as intimate and serious as euthanasia. However, because it is a subject of debate in America, we must all ask ourselves what we would do in a similar situation. Most people would say that, if they were diagnosed with a terminal illness and were to find themselves constantly in unbearable, excruciating pain, they would prefer a quick, easy, painless death. While people are able to speed up the process of death by various means of suicide; drowning, poisoning, hanging, most would rather have some sort of physician aid in ending their lives. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”, by deeming physician aided suicide illegal, we are in fact in violation of the golden rule. A fourth issue, which has also been very prominent in publicized debates over euthanasia, is the right to die with dignity. Does the right to die ignore the sanctity of life? Life is precious and so is the quality of life. Many people choose euthanasia as an escape from their pain, pain so severe that any chance to live a normal life is gone and all quality of life is lost. Also, many people with terminal illnesses find themselves incapable of caring for themselves and even though it is a sad realization, they can become a financial, physical and emotional burden on those people that are left to care for them. By allowing patients to end their lives before a disease takes over, leaving only a shadow of someone whom once was, people are allowed to die with dignity. Now, more than ever, we are seeing a constant influx of cases regarding physician aided suicide and euthanasia in our court systems and in the news. Because doctors and legislatures have failed to create a clear, common definition of death, courts are constantly constructing and rewriting laws that were never meant to handle such a complex issue. In 1994 Judge Barbara Rothstein of the U.S. District Court in Seattle ruled that 140-year-old law forbi...
