First line from Wikipedia entry:
Euthanasia (from the Greek eu = good + thanatos = death) refers to the practice of ending a life in a painless manner.
Reference Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthanasia

In an online "game" called NationStates (based upon the book of "Jennifer Government" by one Max Barry), there are political issues that are given to the person running a "country". Among these is one regarding the legality of Euthanasia. Even in an arbitrary setting, it is almost always impossible for me to answer this one at all as being "for" or "against".

First...
I don't like the idea of someone else having the power of deciding for me when it is okay for my life to end. That is certainly selfish to the point of being about self-preservation. Whether it be by some legal wrangling to apply whatever laws would allow someone else to make that decision for me - scares me. Be it through power of attorney, of someone supposedly having guardianship during times of "unsound mind", temporary insanity, dementia or whatever psychological state a person might be experiencing; giving another person or agency that ability is like having the power of life-and-death over another. That is almost god-like.

Second...
How many hours of deepest contemplation, the sharpest minds from all fields in some great debate or a consensus of the most significant aspects are required to be able to decide not only how something like this should be allowed to come about but as to the depth of minutiae detail which coincides with such an action. And there is the moral versus religious implications, the state versus family or culture and the confusion of interpretations which would only frustrate it even further.

Lastly...
The punitive measures of which we would have to assess in the circumstances of wrongful or spiteful assisted suicides or "murders", to which the participation would mostly make a person the latter for taking active measures in bringing about the ending to another bodies' dying as the end result of their actions. Mistakes would be criticized and possibly lumped into this grouping of euthanasia.




Once, there was a kitten which seemed unwilling to eat and the mother cat didn't really choose to nurse patiently. The eyes of this kitten would often remain closed, crusted and stuck together to where it's vision was almost never longer than a single day. And though it was starving and suffering from the loss of sight, it was impossible for me to end it's life. This same kitten managed to make it's way into the drive where it was ran over by our vehicle, driven by another family member. That death will hang over me while I still contemplate how much it did or did not suffer as a result.



En Summa
It will probably never stop nagging at me personally as to whether this is something that should be excusable, mandatory in certain situations or based upon the emotional decisions of children or parents regarding their loved ones. The act of euthanasia is both kind and cruel.