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MERCY KILLING - TELEOLOGY

Mercy killing, also known as euthanasia or assisted-suicide, is an act of homicide


that is usually carried out to end the life of a person who is suffering from extreme,
incurable pain or illness. An individual who is tormented by a terminal illness may wish
to end his or her own life, but not have the ability to do it. In a case like this, he or she
may request assistance from another person. This is illegal in most, but not all, areas of
the world. Some locales allow it, as long as strict guidelines are followed and the
procedure is conducted by a medical professional at the request of the patient. There are
three types of Euthanasia, which are the voluntary Euthanasia, involuntary Euthanasia
and non-voluntary Euthanasia.
Now I am going to talk about the euthanasia based on the Moral theory which is
Teleology. In short, teleology means study of the ends of action. A teleological
approach is the result of result-orientated. The teleological theory states that whether a
value is right or wrong depends on the final results of an action. It can mean that if an
action/value produces pleasure (or happiness) for an individual, the action/value is right.
If it produces pain (or unhappiness), the action/value is wrong. According to the
teleological approach to morality, as long as the act leads to the greatest good for the
majority, then the ends justify the means.
From my opinion based on the theory of teleology, mercy killing is permissible.
As we know that mercy killing is carried out on a patient or a person who have suffered
from extreme or incurable illness. They would not want to continue suffer the pain or
burden their family member for a long term of time. Thus, they choose to end their life in
a better way so as to free themselves from continue suffering. Based on the theory,
although it may not bring happiness to them, but it does not produce pain for them as
well. Instead, mercy killing can help them relieve from pain and suffering. If they are to
continue to survive, they will most probably live in agony. In addition , their family
member will also suffer together with the patient, bear the large amount of medical fee,
which in the end does not benefit anyone but leave with unhappiness. Hence, the action
will be right since it extricate the patient from pain and suffer, and lead to greatest good
of majority.
In conclusion, I want to stress on that in context of teleology, where the end
justify the means, I agreed that mercy killing is permissible and can be practiced for the
sake of the most.

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