Reflections on Death, Suicide, and Ethical Euthanasia

The subject matter that will be discussed in this book is extremely difficult to find palatable for most people. There is a focus here, as the title suggests, about death, as well as situational aspects that surround this. Death is the great unknown, and it has held a deep fascination in the minds of humanity since the dawn of our first thoughts. It is the depths of which we succumb to, in death, that we find ourselves lost in the maze of questions that have no direct answers. In those depths, we become cognizant of just how fragile life truly is. Euthanasia is another subject which is tied directly to suicide in that there is a choice involved. This choice is highly personal, in that there are multiple angles that an individual must consider prior to engaging in such an act. Those who are suffering, and cannot find respite, have very few choices that will contribute to life satisfaction, or any quality of life for that matter. When the choice to end one’s own life is dependent on others for a compliance to the exercising of limited free will, there are ethics involved that pertain to a community at large. It is here that we find a substantive heaviness of moral choices confronting each one of us that must be accounted for.