From Jack Kevorkian to Terry Schiavo

From Jack Kevorkian to Terry Schiavo, much media attention has been given in recent years to the question of the justifiedly to check. Most American states strike laws against taking ones own life sentence and many also have specific laws against assisted self-destruction. Many others charge those who would assist with suicide with manslaughter or attempted murder. Opponents of euthanasia say that in that respect is no provision in American law for the accountability to scrag. Many specific decents be spelled out in the Bill of Rights and others have been given through the shaping and its am hold onments, but nowhere has the law granted a person the beneficial to die.Proponents claim the right is inherent, God-given and a subject field of free will. The truth lies someplace in between. Americans should have the right to determine when their lives should end. That right is granted them by the Declaration of Independence. Americans have the right to die, as it is includ ed in the right to life, the right of self-rule and the pursuit of happiness. The first legal standard allowing Americans to accept to die should be the words of founding father Thomas Jefferson.In pen the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson said that people should have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. By simple logic, death is an inherent part of life and consequently should be protected by Jeffersons words. As death is the oddment of life and the right to life is guaranteed by the Declaration, it is clear that citizens should be bear up under the right to die as they choose. By guaranteeing people the right to life and liberty, Jefferson may have been apparently spouting the philosophies of John Locke and others, but he inadvertently guaranteed people the liberty to choose their own death.Clearly, in 1776, the judgment of keeping people alive through the use of machines was not a consideration. However, Jefferson makes it clear that self-determ ination is a right of the people. It is that very self-determination that gave the American colonies the right to revolt against England and form their own country. That same right of self-determination should also apply to the average citizen. Nothing is more a matter of personal freedom than the right to die. Other cultures have long near this form of self-determination.In many cultures, the sick, infirmed or elderly would leave their society to die when they decided it was time. The concept that society has become more civilized should not prevent people from making this choice if they desire. The reality is that modern medication has allowed many people to live beyond what would once have been a normal life expectancy. Many of those people regret their longevity as they feel isolated, due to the deaths of contemporaries, and feel the guilt of being a pecuniary or emotional burden on their families.Others do not neediness to face the pain of chronic disease. These people have earned the right to do as they please and by the theory of self-determination, they should be granted that right. Finally, the Declaration grants people the right to the pursuit of happiness. Again, despite the advances of modern medicine, there is no guarantee that simply lengthening a persons life grants them additional happiness. In fact, some elderly persons are simply lonely and in pain. The pursuit of happiness for them might include an end to their suffering and as such, the right to die.The simple matter is that by guaranteeing people the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and by predicating our society on the right of self-determination, America has already made it clear that the right to die is inherent in our beliefs. It should be as clear as the right to freedom of the press or the right to bear arms. Unfortunately, though we lecture a separation of church and state, America is also a phantasmal country and the right to die will not be acknowledge un til the fear of the moral repercussions is overcome.