Should Euthanasia be Legal?

by em on September 11, 2016 - 9:36pm

Should Euthanasia be Legal?


The legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide remains a controversial and taboo subject to discuss about. This remains a source of conflict between many countries since the majority don't authorize this act. Only a few countries legalized this euthanasia such as Belgium, Switzerland, Netherlands, and certain American states. In 2002, Belgium adopted a law authorizing people suffering from insupportable physical or physic pain the right to put an end to their life. The law authorizes them to put an end to their life if they respect certain conditions, the patient must be over 18, the decision has to come voluntarily, in other words it’s only the patient personal decision that matter in this process. In addition, the decision requires the written consent of tree doctor who approved. 


Marieke Vervoort a 37 year old Belgian Paralympic athlete who won the gold medal in 2012 over the 100 metres in London want’s to put an end to her life after participating in her last games in Rio. A current citizen of Belgium she has the possibility of ending her life if the pain from her incurable degenerative spinal disease becomes intolerable in order for her to continue living what’s rest of her life. For the moment, her main concerns are to win the gold medal in Rio’s 400 metres and to complete her personal bucket list including stunt flying. She suffered from this disease for 20 years now, it wasn't an option for her to think about the possibility of ending her life within the help of assisted suicide in Belgium. She finally won the silver medal at the T52 final of the 400 metres in Rio this September. Even without winning the gold, she fulfilled her biggest dream, having only a few months to live before she  ends her life she absolutely want’s to live as much as possible before the pain becomes too much for her. Being exhausted from all, she recently declared having already signed the euthanasia paper in 2008.


The situation Marieke is faced highlights many morals and values, principles in which people and culture oppose from. Many people and culture may argue that that nobody should end their own life since it’s against faith, the right of living and also religion. Why should someone be able so easily to end their life when so many other people fight so hard to get their life back on track? At the same time who are we to judge Marieke’s pain? We are also faced with the other side of this ethical issue. She has the right to be in peace, in harmony with herself and to die in dignity. She is major and has enough autonomy to decide what she want’s, and how she want’s to spend the rest of her days. I’m for legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide, I think that in this particular case it is totally acceptable that Marieke Vervoort would want to end her life. She concretely states suffering from huge among of pain causing her fear, sadness, frustration and even preventing her from sleep. Who are we to judge how she should live? I deeply think that when all the conditions are approved by doctors and psychologist it should be an automatic decision to stop the person from this insupportable pain. In Marieke case they are literally nothing else that the doctors can do but to give her medications, reducing the pain, meaning that the pain will always be a part of her life. Don’t we have enough concern of our own to worry about the physical and psychic pain of others wanting to end their life? It’s the person right to decide how they want to be remembered from others. Don’t they have the right to decide when it as been enough suffering?





Brown, Oliver. « Paralympic Games 2016: Silver salves the pain for Marieke Vervoort ». The Telegraph, 10 September 2016.



I feel like euthanasia is a very interesting subject and i am also very fascinated with how much debate about it around the world today. You made a great summary on Marieke Vervoot and I find her story to be a powerful one. In this summary you are making it sound like it is okay because someone popular, elite wants to contribute to euthanasia/doctor assisted suicide. In your arguments you should have included maybe other arguments that it should be legalized. We should also not just base it on one person in the Olympic, their are many other people with cancer who would like to end their suffering as well but they don't have as many resources as an Olympian does. Other than that your article was a very good one, I would love to hear what you have to say about it.

This is a very interesting ethical issue that we need to talk about more. Your summary was good and really got me into the subject. However, I feel like your second paragraph was also part of the summary and this was maybe a little too much. Overall, I really enjoyed reading your post. I totally agree with you, people that are 18 years old or older know what they are doing. If they have a rock solid reason to end their life, I think that euthanasia should not be considered an ethical issue anymore, but a medical care solution. If I was suffering so bad that I wanted to end my life, I would like euthanasia to be legal and put an end to my miserable life. The moral principle that claims to do no harm supports my point of view. Do you think that some children, who suffer as much as adults, should be eligible for euthanasia?

You made a very interesting summary on this fairly recent topic. It captivated me to think that what is seen by some people as ''suicide'' is legal in some nations. I agree with you that we can not judge one's pain and that if one feels like they've had enough, they should have the last word. I hold strong value for making no harm, and being against something that would relieve someone of their pain goes against my values. Committing suicide because of bullying, for instance, is very tragic and should be prevented. But sometimes, diseases or conditions expose one to tremendous incurable pain and it should be deemed as ethically right to end your life with medical approval. However, I feel like some people may try to benefit from the availability of euthanasia to end their life without any valuable reason, which could create conflict within the conditions one must be eligible to undergo euthanasia. Do you think there should be strict conditions to undergo euthanasia?

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