his creations time has come, and we as human beings are in no position to behave as God and end someone's life. When humans take it upon themselves to shorten their lives or to have others to do it for them by withdrawing life-sustaining apparatus, they play God. They usurp the divine function, and interfere with the divine plan

Euthanasia is defined by the Britannica Encyclopedia as "the action of killing an individual for reasons considered to be merciful"( www.Britannica.com).It is derived from the Greek words for 'good' and 'death', and is commonly called mercy killing. (Jonsen, 12) Voluntary euthanasia may occur when incurably ill persons ask their physician, friend or relative, to put them to death. The patients or their relatives may ask a doctor to withhold treatment and let them die. Many critics of the medical profession conte

Only a fool would minimize the agony that many terminally ill patient endure. Also, there's no question that by letting them die on request we shorten the period of suffering. We also shorten their lives. Can you seriously argue that the saving of pain is greater good than the saving of life? Or that presence of pain is worse than the loss of life? Of course, nobody likes to see a creature suffer, especially when the creature has requested a halt to the suffering. However, we have to keep our priorities straight. Every doctor can tell stories of patients expected to die within days who surprise everyone with their extraordinary recoveries. Every doctor has experienced the wonderful embarrassment of being proven wrong in their pessimistic prognosis. To make euthanasia a legitimate option as soon as the prognosis is pessimistic enough is to reduce the probability of such extraordinary recoveries from low to zero. Earlier acceptance of euthanasia may well undercut the urgency of the research efforts which lead to the discovery of helpful treatments. If we accept euthanasia now, we may well delay by decades the discovery of effective treatments for those diseases that are now terminal. (Brock 76)

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