Shifting Perspectives on The Right to Die
In This Nursing Home I Am Not Allowed to Die
The debate over euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide
Republished from www.centerforappliedtheoryofmind.com
Growing up as a child in the Netherlands, I surrounded myself with as many animals as I could. I would walk dogs, ride horses, milk cows, play with cats, you name it. Most of these animals didn’t belong to me, so I had no say regarding their well-being. Whenever an animal became seriously ill or suffered a severe injury, the moral stance of the owner was to alleviate the animal’s suffering and humanely expedite its end-of-life transition.
During that same period of my life my grandfather got seriously ill and was bedridden for several years. One day, while I was playing in my grandparents’ living room, I overheard my mother saying to another family member,
“Everyday, dad is praying to God, asking the Lord to let him die so that he doesn’t need to suffer anymore.”
Being a young child, I didn’t understand why the doctor wasn’t helping my grandfather with his journey to death like the veterinarian normally did for animals who found themselves in the same…
