ling patients, but do they realize that by prolonging the process of death the medical profession is doing exactly that? They are keeping the patient alive when "God" would have them dead. That statement sounds harsh, but isn't it the truth? Doctors are not always responsible to do everything they can to save somebody. If a doctor's duty is to ease the pain of his patients, then why should this exclude the possibility of letting them die? "It is a mistake to see doctors either as curers (for sometimes they cannot cure us) or as killers (for most of the time they will not kill us). Rather we should see them as carers. And proper caring can call in special circumstances for killing. (Crisp/euthanasia.org)" A poll done in the United States showed that forty-seven percent of doctors had received requests from patients to hasten their deaths. Nineteen percent of these doctors took active steps that brought about the death of a patient. Also, sixty-eight percent thought that guidelines for withholding or withdrawing treatment should be established and forty-five percent were in favor of legislation of active euthanasia under certain circumstances (www.euthanasia.org).As someone who has experienced first hand how devastating it can be to have someone in their family who is in such pain that they can barely move, and want more than anything else to die now rather than in a year, I can say that allowing someone to choose whether they live or die is a right that all people in that kind of position should be given. It is hard for the family to let go, but at the same time one must respect the wishes of the individual and understand that this is what is best for them. Had she gone into a coma and I had to choose for her, I would have chosen to remove life support. As much as I would not want to, it is what she would have wanted.No matter how much the world changes, or how technologically advanced we get there will always be people dying. It ...
