Colorado will have its Proposition 106 in the ballot in the upcoming general elections of the United States. Proposition 106 details an extensively updated version of euthanasia compared to the rest of the versions that have been legalized in other parts of the world, and some states in the United States of America. Set up for a referendum, the End of Life Options Act, also referred as the Proposition 106, it aims to have the people of Colorado to vote whether to legalize the act of assisted death among individuals who are terminally ill (Ballotpedia.org, 2016). As expected the referendum issue has been full of controversy given the ethical directions that have been in contention ever since the topic arose, not just in Colorado but everywhere else on earth.
Euthanasia involves a terminally ill patient choosing to die instead of going through the suffering that their condition may inflict on them and end up killing them in the end. The Colorado authorities have weighed the ethical issues and the rising trends of assisted death from other parts of the world and wants people to decide on whether assisted death should be legal in the state. A vote for ‘Yes’ in the upcoming referendum will mean that voters will be choosing to legalize assisted death for the terminally ill who have less than six months to live. A vote for ‘No’ will mean that voters will be choosing to delegitimize the practice of assisted death among patients in the state of Colorado. Clearly, the ethical and moral issues in the referendum question are too prominent to be ignored. As such, the upcoming section will analyze the ethical positions that Colorado voters have to pick based on the issues being raised in Proposition 106. The End of Life Options Act may have serious ramifications, an aspect that calls for serious informed debate before picking to support or reject the question in the referendum.
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The issue of assisted death links both ethical and justice issues. Hobbes (2013) points out that ethics and justice ought to interlink for policies to be effective. Hobbes suggests that justice should be seen to be done rather than through the existence of limited/unlimited freedom/liberty. Locke, Hume & Rousseau (1960) also suggest that every citizen and authority have unique duties and rights that must be balanced. From a philosophical perspective, both Hobbes and Locke point out that the development of policies, such as Proposition 106, need to reflect the trends of justice and liberty that every person is entitled to enjoy.
Assisted death has been legalized in several parts of the world, specifically in some European countries. Netherlands is one of the countries that have been described to support assisted death for many years. The motivation of assisted death has been the sustenance of human dignity all through the life of an individual regardless of whether they are terminally ill or not. There is no point of letting an individual go through so much suffering and end up dying given the seriousness of the conditions that they may be suffering from at some point in their life. Proposition 106 borrows heavily from the statues in the countries that have legalized euthanasia. The model in Colorado is in line with the American constitution, which upholds the right and freedom of every citizen to choose for them anything that they perceive ethical and moral in their lives.
The ethical question regarding Proposition 106 is whether anyone is justified in the killing of another person, despite the condition that one may be suffering from at some point in his or her life. Apparently, the United States constitution recognizes and upholds the fact that every person has the right to life. It is illegal to kill another person, or to take one’s life through suicide. However, Proposition 106 will give a terminally ill individual to choose whether to pick assisted death or undergo the suffering that their condition may have on them. The suffering may involve the loss of dignity in their life and may add up to the unethical and immoral perception of watching as one suffers to their death. Therefore, it is important that people in Colorado to choose whether to die without suffering or to endure the suffering and then end up dying from the condition they may be going through in their lives.
References
Ballotpedia.org,. (2016). Colorado . Ballotpedia.org . Retrieved 7 November 2016, from https://ballotpedia.org/Colorado_%22End_of_Life_Options_Act,%22_Proposition_106_(2016)
Hobbes, T. (2013). Elements of law, natural and political. Routledge.
Locke, J., Hume, D., & Rousseau, J. J. (1960). Social contract: essays by Locke, Hume, and Rousseau (Vol. 511). Oxford University Press.
