Monday, November 2, 2009
Euthanasia’s Effect on Family
A study has been done to show the effects of euthanasia on family and friends. The study included 189 family members of a person suffering from a terminal cancer who was euthanized. They compared the grieving process and post traumatic stress of these persons to 316 family members who’s loved one died of a natural death. The results of the study showed that the family members of the person who died from euthanasia had an easier time dealing with the loss. This is obviously good for the family member but should we consider this when debating whether to legalize euthanasia or not? I do not think that it is good to consider the family member’s feeling over the life of a person. There are always cases where people go into remission after having cancer. We must also consider family members who do not want the terminally ill person to be euthanized. Only forty percent of Americans would aid a terminally ill family member to kill themselves. One must also consider the fact that the other sixty percent could just be holding on hoping for a recovery so that they will not have to cope with the pain of death. It would be interesting to see how these anti euthanasia persons deal with death. Leave a comment if you have an opinion as to whether the feeling of family members should be considered over a valuable human life. Also feel free to discuss how you think family members would react to a euthanasia death if they were not in support of it.
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I believe the life of the the ill one should be placed above the feelings of the family members. In my opinion, a life is more important than a feeling. Very interesting blog post!
ReplyDeleteI feel like the feeling of family members should be considered over a human life especially if it is one of the closest members. For example, if a couple that has been together for say 30 years is going throug a problem where the husband is painfully and slowly dying, it might be of benefit to the wife to go ahead and euthanize the husband. In most cases, the husband would want this because he would not want his wife to have to suffer through the pain with him. The pain could easily go on for a long period of time.
ReplyDeleteObviously, if a family member was not in support of a euthanasia death, they would be very upset if their family member was eutanized. But can you realy please everyone? I feel that the person that is closest to the person being considered for euthanization have their thoughts on the practice considered first.
I agree, this post is quite interesting. Personally, I think the reason the family members of the person who died from euthanasia had an easier grieving process was because they new that their loved one was happy with their decision. The most comforting idea of all is knowing that someone didn't die regretting or fighting, just that they were at peace with it. This makes the entire process much easier for everyone involved and I think it should be a vital consideration when thinking about legalizing euthanasia. Do you think it is more important to consider the ill person's wishes or those who are left in the aftermath? Thanks so much for this blog post, very thought provoking!
ReplyDeleteJelly Bean,
ReplyDeleteHow would we decipher whether a person is close or not? And what about those cases where a family member wants the person to die so they can have access to their trust fund?
18equalsadult,
Thank you for the compliment and good points for considering the family members!
itsallover,
thanks for your comment