Document Type
Argument Essay
Publication Date
1989
Excerpt
My grandmother died this summer but not before she brought the issue of euthanasia into my family's consciousness. I remember my grandma as a warm and outgoing individual so it was difficult to watch her lying helpless in a cold hospital room. Malignant tumors slowly and painfully ate away at her body as a respirator helped her grasp at life. The doctors told my parents that grandma could die at any time, and so it was with sadness that my parents and I left the hospital each day not knowing if we would see her alive again. But was she really alive? My parents and the doctors thought about this question and debated over whether or not we were prolonging her death and whether or not we should "pull the plug." The decision was difficult, but fortunately grandma's suffering ended the night before my parents and the doctors were to make their fateful decision. They didn't have to decide whether or not to induce death and end my grandmother's misery and pain. My parents and the doctors didn't have to decide whether or not to perform the act of euthanasia.
Recommended Citation
Mueller, Scott, "The Euthanasia Controversy (1989)" (1989). The Valpo Core Reader. 421.
http://scholar.valpo.edu/core_reader/421