In September, 2002, two years after the car accident in Normandy that nearly killed him, twenty-one year old, Vincent Humbert was handed his final prognosis. He would never walk, see, speak, smell or taste again- yet he could very well live into his 80s. Once a keen tennis player and volunteer fireman, Humbert, who could only move his right thumb, resolved to die. As he explained in his book I Ask the Right to Die that he wrote by using his thumb to indicate the letters of the alphabet, “The more time passes the less I want to live out my days as a shivered vegetable on a hospital bed.” As these situations keep happening around the world, I am more certain that euthanasia should be legalized in these specific situations.

Euthanasia presents very controversial social issues. Religious people are against this process because they believe life is a gift from God and that each individual is a gift and only God can start a life and only God should be allowed to end it. In the medical aspect, most doctors are against Euthanasia because it goes against the Hippocratic oath, were it states that doctors are obligated to preserve life and relieve suffering. Lots of doctors think that people sh

ould be kept alive just in case there is any hope of them recovering. Others believe that in a specific situation euthanasia should be established. People argue as to whether or not a person who is terminally ill, or handicap, should have the right or not to ask their doctor, or relatives to die by euthanasia. In the case named earlier of Vincent Humbert, his mother Marie Humbert took matters into her own hands and injected an overdose of barbiturates into his intravenous drip, sending him into a coma and eventually killing him. Marie Humbert was arrested for murder but surprisingly the 88 % of the population in France supported Marie’s decision and where in favor of euthanasia for Vincent. This raised a number of issues on mercy killing and many people had accused Marie as immoral and as bad mother. For Vincent, he made it clear in his book that he didn’t what her mother to be judge and he cited, “What she has done for me is surely the most beautiful proof of love in the world.”

In the recent years, euthanasia had been legalized in a few European countries. Germany, Great Britain and Wales, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland have been debating on the legalization of euthanasia but only Belgium and the Netherlands have recently legalized euthanasia when employed in certain conditions. The Dutch bill, was adopted in April

Some topics in this essay:
Belgium Netherlands, Marie Humbert, Vincent Humbert, , Netherlands Switzerland, belgium netherlands, euthanasia legalized, person terminally ill, marie humbert, euthanasia controversial, gift god, terminally ill, specific situations, person terminally, doctors euthanasia, life person,