Euthanasia: A Critical Review of the Right to Die

This paper critically reviews the story of Mathilde exercising her right to die and discusses the arguments for and against euthanasia. The anti-euthanasia arguments include obligations to society, religious practices, violation of law, and disrespect for sacred life. Pro-euthanasia arguments include the right to die, freedom of privacy, and freeing up scarce health resources. The paper concludes that euthanasia should be reconsidered in countries where it is banned.

The right to die
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Introduction
The story considered in this assignment throws light on a burning topic of the 21st century viz.
Euthanasia. The euthanasia can be defined as the termination of life when there no chance is left
to save the person by any means (Boudreau, 2011). The lady named as Mathilde in the story
exercised the option of euthanasia i.e. her right to die. This paper aims to critically review the
story in the context of euthanasia.
What are the anti-euthanasia arguments?
Some argue that along with enjoying certain rights, the person has some obligations also. In this
case, the lady died in her bed without considering the opinion of wider society and her children.
Sometimes, euthanasia is also linked to religious practices and it is argued that only God has the
right to take life. Another argument is that it facilitates the doctors and society to kill the person
before his/her natural death in the name of saving resources. Some argue that it may lead to the
blatant violation of the law for greedy and selfish reasons. Euthanasia disrespects the value of
sacred life. Euthanasia may not be in the best interest of the terminally ill patient and many times
the person is not able to decide without any ambiguity if he or she has to exercise the right to die
(Math and Chaturvedi, 2012). Thus, voluntary euthanasia gets converted into involuntary one.
What are pro-euthanasia arguments?
The scholars in favor of euthanasia argue that the person has right to die which, though nowhere
mentioned, implicit in the right to life. The right to privacy includes the right to die as death is
not bad at all. A good death is the right of the person which must be provided as in this case. Ro-
euthanasia professional argue that the euthanasia can very well be regulated to prevent any

misdeed (Ebrahimi, 2012). The scarce health resources can be freed away by using euthanasia.
There are millions of persons who cannot economically access medical treatment. It would save
the resources for those ones. They further argue that the state has no right to interfere in private
matters. Euthanasia satisfies the criteria that moral values must be universalisable. Euthanasia
happens anyway.
Conclusion
From the story, it can be concluded that Mathilde died of a good death. She exercised her right to
die at the opportune time. She informed her children and husband. It was not practical to live for
more days without any physical harm. She relieved herself from pain and adopted the libertarian
approach (Pereira, 2011). She had to die anyway but by ending her life according to her own
will, she has set a precedent for other persons to imitate her. There are many countries in the
world in which euthanasia is banned; they must reconsider the passive and active euthanasia.

References
Boudreau, J. D. (2011). Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia: Can You Even Imagine
Teaching Medical Students How to End Their Patients' Lives? The Permanente Journal ,
79-84.
Ebrahimi, N. (2012). The ethics of euthanasia. Australian Medical Student Journal, 45-56.
Pereira, J. (2011). Legalizing euthanasia or assisted suicide: the illusion of safeguards and
controls. A Canadian Cancer Research Journal.
Math, B.S. & Chaturvedi S. (2012). Euthanasia: Right to life vs right to die. Indian Journal of
Medical Research, 899-902.