Aiding in death: A very complex issue

Prompt: Guilty as Charged, But?

Even if Roswell Gilbert was acting out of love and obligation to his wife by killing her, I still think that he was wrong in his actions. Taking another persons life is a terrible and horrendous act to commit. Alternatively I think Gilbert should have sought serious medical help for his wife. Even if she begged him to kill her, I still think that it was wrong; it’s not Gilberts place to take someone’s life even if they are asking for it.

Alzheimer’s is a horrible disease and I witnessed with one of my grandmothers several years ago. It’s terribly sad to witness someone’s mind basically disintegrate. Possibly the worst thing about the disease is that the person affected with it has now idea about the difficulties of daily life. In this situation there is no telling what was going through Gilbert’s wife’s mind.

I think that the majority of society would be shocked and appalled by Gilbert’s actions. I think there are many other options that could have been explored before giving in and killing his own wife. The state of Oregon is the only state in the nation where physicians-assisted suicide is legal. This tells me that the other 49 states in the nation feel like aiding in someone’s death is wrong and immoral.

This is a very complex issue because most people have not been in the position that Gilbert’s wife was in, on her death bed. While I say that his actions were wrong and immoral, I have never been in so much pain that I wished I was dead. I think in this kind of situation you can not fully understand it unless you have spent time in the other person’s shoes.

I don’t think that our laws are sufficient enough to address such a complex issue and I do not know if they will ever be. Whenever morals are mixed with the law the issue at hand often becomes very gray. The people in law believe that they are right while the people on the morality side believe that they are right. I think that there is a whole array of issues including this one where the two sides often times see things very differently.