Euthanasia: A Crime of Compassion

The story of Roswell Gilbert is a sad one. Imagine a 76 year old man who has been happily married to his wife for 51 years. Roswell obviously loved his wife, Emily. They had been together for over half a century, a testament to humanities ability to cherish one another. The connection a couple must share after that long of a time would be unbreakable. The lives of the two would have been as one for such a great amount of time that living without the other must have been absolutely intolerable. Roswell suffered a fate worse than his beloved dying for several years. Emily had began to suffer from osteoporosis, a painful bone disorder, and Alzheimer's disease, a terrible degenerative disease of the mind. Roswell would have been forced to watch his wife slowly disappear. Emily would have been wracked with pain and slowly creeping toward madness.

Emily would have began her spiral by losing her short term memory. This would begin small, as in misplacing her keys or forgetting to feed the cat. She would also begin to feel more sluggish and less spontaneous. Emily would begin to not want to venture away form the house anymore, simply preferring to watch television or participate in some other low-energy activity. Her forgetfulness would then progress until she began to forget names of close friends and familiar objects. Roswell's heart must have been ripped in two when his wife could not remember his name after 51 years of marriage. Emily's symptoms would gradually worsen causing her to forget simple skills such as how to drive, operate a computer or cook. Roswell must have cried many nights, watching his wife disappear into the recesses of her own mind. Alzheimer's patients are known to occasionally burst into violence or become extremely passive, even if these activities are nothing like their original personalities. Perhaps Emily exposed Roswell to a violent side of herself, which he undoubtedly understood as one of the symptoms of her condition, but must have been truly disdained at such an obvious sign of his wife's worsening condition. In the later stages of the disease, Emily must have become incontinent, the muscular deterioration combining with the severity of the osteoporosis to produce a condition in which she was entirely bedridden and riddled with pain and nightmares from the past. After watching his wife's steady descent, Roswell's mind must have been tortured, his heart yearning to help his wife.

Love is the second strongest of human emotions, hate being the strongest. Roswell loved Emily. His decision to end his wife's pain is understandable if you view it from his perspective. The problem is, it was not his decision to make. I understand how Roswell felt, but there should have been some planning on this beforehand. This would be one of the hardest talks anyone would every have to go through, but he should have brought this up to Emily earlier in her condition, while she was still mostly cognitive. The laws are only partially adequate for this situation, seeking to protect the innocent over understanding the unique. I agree that the court was right in punishing Mr. Gilbert. I do, however, think that in cases where one person in a marriage develops this sort of symptom, that if the plug is to be pulled, or euthanasia enacted, there should be a contract drawn up and signed early in the condition while the ailing person is still cognitive. If the person is unable to vouch for themselves, then there is no choice in the matter as to whether they live or not, the default being life. Personally, death terrifies me. I am no coward, being able to take risks when necessary, but I would not elect to have someone end my life under many circumstances. Being a vegetable or mentally incapable are not one of the select few in which I would willingly lay down my right to live. Everyone should be given such a choice, provided they deserve it.