Euthanasia Essay: Eugenics To Euthanasia :: Free Euthanasia Essay

Eugenics To Euthanasia This essay presents the c in all down which euthanasia has to modern society. What is this appeal based on? Is it a valid appeal? These and other questions are addressed in this paper. See if this story sounds acquainted(predicate) A happily married couple - she is a pianist he a rising scientist - have their love suddenly tested by a decline in the wifes health. Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, she falls victim to a steady loss of muscle control and paralysis. The desperate save uses all his professional skills to save her. unless ultimately he must discover her deteriorate in hideous pain. The wife worries that she will soon no longer be a person anymore - just a lump of flesh - and a torture for her husband. She begs her husband to kill her in front that happens. And eventually, worn down, the reluctant husband releases his wife from her misery with poison. The husband is indicted for murder. But the understanding judge and jury soon agree that, given the circumstances, the husband is not a killer, and the law needs to be reformed. Meanwhile, in torrid public comments, the husband attacks the prop whiznts of outmoded beliefs and antiquated laws who inflict unnecessary hurt on the terminally ill, who suffer without hope and whose death would be rescue for them. The story fits comfortably with todays medical headlines. It could easily be a 20/20 segment or a page from Jack Kevorkians current trial. But it comes from another era. Produced in 1941, its the plot line of I Accuse, one of the Third Reichs most effective propaganda films. I Accuse was created for one curtilage only to advance the Nazi campaign of euthanasia for the mentally and physically handicapped, antisocial elements, and the terminally ill. And it worked. It was a big box-office success. Its also the classic exercise of how compassion can be manipulated to justify mass killing - premiere in the name of mercy, then in the name of cost and utility. Ob viously, the States today is not Germany in 1941. Americans have a practical experience of justice that favors the weak and the little guy. But if we want to keep it that way, we shouldnt scoop out that merely knowing about a past tragedy prevents us from repeating it. We need to learn from history. And