Discussion About Euthanasia for People With Mental Disorder
Introduction
- Attention Getter: Imagine your loved one was suffering with a mental illness such as depression. Now, we all know that depression is curable through rehab and is not considered a terminally ill disease. Since depression is curable, wouldn’t you want your loved one to recover if there is therapy available rather than using the option to die?
- Relation to Audience: Now I know that the majority of you believe that euthanasia should be practiced for the mentally ill. Think about it. How would you feel if you were a patient dealing with a mental illness and you knew that you still had hope of recovering by going to rehab, but the decision of being euthanized had already been made for you.
- Thesis Statement: This is why euthanasia should not be practiced for mentally ill people.
- Preview of Major Points: Euthanasia should not be practiced because one, euthanasia is a rejection of the importance and value of human life and two, mentally ill people are not capable of making good decisions, especially ones about their own life.
Body
Euthanasia is a rejection of the importance and value of human life. The International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide states, “People who support euthanasia often say that it is already considered permissible to take human life under some circumstances such as self defense - but they miss the point that when one kills for self defense they are saving innocent life - either their own or someone else's. With euthanasia no one's life is being saved - life is only taken”
ACT Right to Life asserts, “Euthanasia and assisted suicide are tragic rejections of the truth about the value of our lives and the care of others. It is an ‘undignified’ way to die.”
If dying with dignity means to accept the reality of our human condition and to show appreciation for the gift of life, then we, as human beings, are supposed to go through the dying process in a way which indicates our great value as a human being and that is to accept the love and care of those around us and wait for death to come naturally.
(Transition: Organizations support that euthanasia is a rejection of the value and importance of one’s life, and this leads me to my second point)
Mentally ill people are not capable of making good decisions especially ones about their own life. Mentally ill people are not thinking properly in their minds and will not be able to make a so called “good decision”. As Conservative Gérard Deltell said in a recent interview, “At what point does someone suffering from a mental illness offer his or her full and complete consent? It’s impossible.” If a person is going through depression, then of course all they can think about is wanting to die and commit suicide. They are not conscious in their minds to think whatever they are doing is okay or not. Obviously, access to available treatments—the medications now are numberless—and psychotherapy and cognitive behavioural therapy are becoming increasingly open. These availabilities should be tried before anyone even considers killing themselves (Bayliss).
The Canadian Press states that, “Whether a person has the capacity to make such a life-and-death decision — a requirement to be eligible for aid in dying — also needs to be evaluated, given that mental illness can distort thinking and impair the ability to process relevant information and to appreciate consequences of a decision.”
(Transition: These two reasons all point to the fact that euthanasia should not be practiced for mentally ill people. Now, let me get to my rebuttal point.)
Rebuttal Point: While the pro speaker made strong valid points, demanding a “right to die” is one of the most common point pro-euthanasia people bring up and they believe it is “right”. The “right” is not giving a right to the person who is killed but to the person who does the action of the killing by just signing a paper. In other words, euthanasia is not about the right to die but more about the right to kill. Euthanasia is not about giving rights to the person who dies but, instead, it is about changing the law and public policy so that doctors, relatives, and loved ones can intentionally and directly end another person's life.
ACT Right to Life states, “Euthanasia is not about a private act. It is about letting one person facilitate the death of another. That is a matter of very public concern since it can lead to tremendous abuse of care for the most vulnerable people among us.”
Conclusion
- Restatement of Thesis: Euthanasia should not be practiced for mentally ill people.
- Review of Major Points: Like I have already said, euthanasia is a rejection of the importance and value of human life, and mentally ill people are not capable of making good decisions, especially ones about their own life.
Final Motivational Appeal
Euthanasia is not needed when proper palliative care is available. When my grandmother was diagnosed with alzheimers, people in the family did not want to take care of her because they found it to be a lot of work and believed that assisted death was the only easy way out. However, only my mom was against her family’s ide. Everyone in the family tried to convince my mom to just let my grandmother die because my grandmother was suffering which made others around her suffer too. However, my mom didn’t care and was willing to spend every minute taking care of her even though she took her to rehab. Even though she knew that the symptoms would get worse as time progressed, there were ways to improve the quality of life for her and euthanasia was not the only way out.
