Government should permit Euthanasia

You're making me think a lot more than I'd like to. Here I will address these three arguments my opponent has provided 1. Euthanasia doesn't weaken societal value of Sanctity of Life 2. Cascading Consequences 3. Parallel Cases 1. The main argument presented here is that by not killing people with Euthanasia, I will just let them "die slowly", and this point was mainly directed at the isolation unit plan. For starters, isolation units are made to treat the ill. I believe you have the misconception that we just let people sit in the hospital and rot, and that is completely ridiculous. The Ebola cases, for example. There are isolation units designed to keep the diseased away from the others, resulting in the containment of disease, which actually better protecting the lives of others by keeping them healthy, and providing safe treatment for the diseased. This way, we can actually save more lives, and though the death of the "grandpa" saddens me, the lives of hundreds of others outweighs that in the end, since we better protect the people, and society itself. More on why there is no "slow painful death" will follow in my third point. Furthermore, isolation units are actually not contradictory in this sense. As they are designed to CONTAIN the disease, they protect the public from whatever pathogen "grandpa" may carry. This protects more people, thus better achieving the goal of this debate: Life. 2. The argument that you have provided against the cascading consequences of the Pro is begging the question; why won't it result in the involuntary euthanasia of others? Sure, hospitals are regulating the process, but this ensures nothing. History is littered with the corpses of millions of people killed due to government overreach. Over a million people died in the Soviet forced labor camp called the Gulag in just 20 years of the Stalin era. The Gulag was created in the name of state security to prevent crime and enemies of the government. This is only one of the many instances where more people have died due to government overreach. When you take a look like people such as Mao, Pol Pot, Hitler, and Stalin, they didn't want to obliterate their people, they just wanted what was best. By allowing government to control a power like Euthanasia, there is absolutely NO guarantee that power will not be abused, because as we can see historically, government powers are terribly prone to abuse. We don't need to provide any more powers for the government to abuse, as it is catastrophic to the human condition. 3. I acknowledge the fact that there are illnesses that cannot be cured, and it pains me to even think of the people suffering because of this. But the fact is, WE ALREADY HAVE AN ALTERNATIVE. Families can decide to pull the plug on their loved ones, and allow them to exit life peacefully. Though the question remains, "What's the difference between pulling the plug and euthanasia? " Well, here it is. Euthanasia is actively taking a life, while pulling the plug is a passive act. Euthanasia is actively giving a person some thing to kill them, as you stated in response to my last case. Even if they are asking for it, intentionally killing someone is murder. Also, patients asking to die, are usually doing it under duress (they are sick or in pain etc), which legally may make them incapable of making decisions for themselves. "Pulling the Plug" is usually done at the request of the patients family OR if a living will is discovered for the patient indicating that they do not want heroic measures to prolong life. These are usually signed before the patient is ill, with witnesses - in other words no duress. Patients that have life-support removed do not have to be brain dead. Families decide every day to remove life support from terminally ill patients to let them die with dignity, rather than have to suffer being attached to tubes and wires for the days-weeks-months we can keep them alive with machines and drugs. By favoring this alternative, we can uphold social values, such as the Sanctity of Life, prevent government power abuse, and protect the public from whatever contagion somebody may carry. With these presented points, I stand against the proposal, that "Government Should Permit Euthanasia", and I urge others to do so as well. Thank You.