Since I picked the topic of assisted suicide for my junior theme, an extremely heavy and depressing topic, I was hoping to distance myself from it over spring break so I could rest up and relax for fourth quarter. Unfortunately, I wasn't lucky enough to be free from thinking about my topic the entire break.
On the first day of my vacation, my little brother asked what my junior theme topic was, and I carefully explained assisted suicide in a way that a 5th grader could understand. He told me that he thought it was never ok to kill someone, even if they want to die. A day later, my brother got the worst sunburn of his life. My parents were worried that he had gotten sun poisoning or had an allergic reaction because he was in so much pain and completely miserable. When it was all over, my brother told me that he had completely changed his position on assisted suicide. He said that if a person was in the amount of pain that he had been in for the rest of their life, he would understand if they wanted another way out.
For one, it was pretty concerning to me that my brother could change his position so quickly over a bad sunburn. I see his quick change in opinion as an argument against assisted suicide. Temporary pain can make people do irrational things, and having a way out in the form of an assisted suicide could be potentially dangerous to people who aren't thinking clearly. Sure, when a person has chronic pain that won't let up for the rest of their life it is a different situation, but with the option of assisted suicide already there for those people, its concerning that others may want to follow.
On a lighter note, I hope everyone had a great spring break! See you in class tomorrow!
It's amazing how junior theme keeps coming up even when trying to escape it. For my topic, prescription drug use on the rise, I keep making connections to everyday use of medicine in my family and whenever someone mentions "taking their medicine". I also find that I think more critically about some of the articles I read based on my own experiences with prescription drugs. For example, I've read that upper class whites (and especially the children of upper class whites) are being prescribed ADHD medicine and that many don't actually need it. In my family there are certain people that do take ADD medication but I know that they have been tested by professionals and that they aren't taking medicine just for extra focus or to prohibit natural behavior. Had I not had this experience I might have come to the conclusion that a lot of ADHD prescriptions are not needed and not considering the other side. This seems just like the point you made based off the incident with your brother.
ReplyDeleteAs for your lighter note, I did have a good spring break. Thank you for asking.