I'm Back

Goodness it's been quite a while since I posted here. ;) I hate going that long, but from me being sick last week (thanks to this girl at church who decided to get right in my face), to the horrors of geometry, to my dad's sudden interest in grading my papers (which can result in a lot of redos), I have been very busy as of late. :) I hope everyone is looking forward to a somewhat relaxing weekend. I most certainly am, (well I have choir at 9:00 AM tomorrow, but I'll still enjoy it I suppose. ;) ) Since I don't have much else to say, I thought I'd post one of my school papers. This one is a comparison of the book The Metamorphosis , ( a very odd and disturbing book to say the least) and the current debate on euthanasia. It's not one of my best papers, but it will do for now I suppose. :)


Relating The Metamorphosis to the Current Debate on Euthanasia

In this paper I will be comparing and contrasting The Metamorphosis with the current debate on euthanasia.

In the case of The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa, the main character, wakes up one morning to discover that he has become a giant insect. He becomes a great burden on his parents and sister, (who must clean his room and feed him daily), seeing as how he can do nothing for himself. His sister soon becomes very upset with this situation. "‘We must try to get rid of it," his sister now said exclusively to her father, since her mother was coughing too hard to hear anything. "It will be the death of you two, I can see it coming. People who already have to work as hard as we do can’t put up with this constant torture at home, too. I can’t stand it anymore either.’ And she broke off crying so bitterly that her tears poured down onto her mother’s face, which she wiped off with mechanical movements of her hand." (The Metamorphosis page 49 second para.) Just as Gregor became a burden to his family, a person in a coma or with an incurable illness might become a burden to their family. It might become very time consuming to have to feed them, visit them at the hospital, etc. every day. It might even become tempting after a while to go ahead and kill them if they’re not going to get better in the first place.

Gregor’s parents first began considering ending his life when they realized that he had no further purpose in his life. He had originally been responsible for supporting the family, but of course now he can’t do anything to help further society. The families of some "doomed to death" patients tend to think along the same lines as Gregor’s parents. The patient can’t do anything in life anymore, and thus seems to have no purpose. Some families wonder why they should continue to let someone live on who has no purpose anymore.

As the story progresses, Gregor’s family begins to view him not as Gregor anymore, but simply as an insect. Gregor’s room begins to gather dust, as his sister barely cleans it anymore. She also doesn’t even notice whether Gregor likes the food she brings him, but simply collects it every day and sends more in whether he likes it or not. Since he can’t communicate with his family anymore, Gregor becomes nothing to them. This might be the case in real life situations. Sometimes an ill patient might enter into a state when they can’t communicate with the world around them, and thus might become already "dead" to the people around them. It might seem much simpler just to go ahead and kill them.

Just as euthanasia patient’s families contribute to their death by allowing them to be killed, Gregor’s family contributed to his death as well. Gregor basically starved to death because his sister brought him no food he could eat, but the main reason that he died seems to be because he had no will to live. After he heard his family talking about possibly ending his life and how he was nothing but an "it" to them, it seems as if Gregor believed it was his duty to his parents to end his life.

I stand against euthanasia. People shouldn’t try to play God, which is actually what they’re doing when they actively kill someone in that manner. Just because others don’t think a person doesn’t have a purpose anymore doesn’t mean that God’s done with that person. Euthanasia is nothing but murder.