The Role Of Euthanasia In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

His aforementioned characteristics lead to a detrimental event: the murder of Curley’s wife. George realizes that Curley will not leave Lennie alone as quoted by Candy: “‘Curley gon’ta wanta get ‘im lynched. Curley’ll get ‘im killed.’” (). George decides to kill Lennie compassionately to prevent further afflictions by lettting Lennie die at his happiest moment.

Today, there is a large debate over the situation and consequences of euthanasia. Euthanasia is the act of ending a human’s life by lethal injection or the stoppage of medication, or medical treatment. It has been denied by most of today’s population and is illegal in the fifty states of the United States. Usually, those who undergo this treatment have a disease or an “unbearable” pain somewhere in the body or the mind. Since there are ways, other than ending life, to stop pain caused by illness or depression, euthanasia is immoral, a disgrace to humanity, according to the Hippocratic Oath, and should be illegal throughout the United States.

Once again, Lennie finds himself in trouble, when he killed Curley’s wife. He remembers what George told him, “...I want you to come right here an’ hide in the brush” (Chapter 1). That is exactly what Lennie does, he runs straight to the camping spot. When everyone finally sees Curley’s wife dead, they all know who it was and set out to kill him. George sets out as well to see if he can reach Lennie before the rest of the men. “I oughtta of shot that dog myself, George, I shouldn't oughtta of let no stranger shoot my dog” (Chapter 3). That is what Candy said to George after Carlson shot his dog. “George… reached in his side pocket and brought out Carlson’s Luger…” (Chapter 6) This is when George finally reaches Lennie and decides to go ahead and put him out of his own misery, so he shoots him. John Steinbeck uses foreshadowing by clearly using Candy’s dog to represent Lennie’s

It wasn’t until the beginning of the 12th century and the rise of Christianity that physician assisted suicide viewpoints changed because of the religious belief that life is a gift from God and that no one had the right to take a life. Consequently, the Hippocratic Oath was taken seriously and faithfully followed by physician thus sparking the debate for legal assisted suicide for centuries to come.

Defend or challenge the notion that George's act of killing Lennie was one of kindness

“But not us! And why? Because… because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that’s why “ (Steinbeck 14). In Of Mice and Men, a novel by John Steinbeck, one of the main characters, George Milton, shoots his best friend Lennie Small, another main character, in the back of the head after murdering Curley’s wife. George makes the tough decision to shoot Lennie himself before Curley gets to him and kills him slowly making him suffer. Steinbeck shows us that mercy killing, or euthanasia is an act of putting a loved one’s suffering to an end by killing them, which can also work for animals too. Although some may argue that mercy killing is wrong and that these people deserve a second chance to live, we continue to argue

Lennie’s fixation with soft animals and his inability to keep from accidentally killing them indicates that he may kill again in the future. The conclusion of the novel is made possible when Lennie gets a puppy from Slim, and he is constantly in the barn petting it. Slim and Crooks tell Lennie not to hold the puppy too hard or keep it away from its mom for too long or it will die. At the conclusion, the puppy started to bite Lennie and that led Lennie to kill it accidentally. Lennie killing the puppy led to a conversation with Curley’s wife, where he ends up killing her, too. Both of these deaths hint that Lennie will soon be involved in another

In life there are many things we have to do even if we do not want to. We might do it to save somebody from an event that could hurt them very much. In the novel Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, George did not kill Lennie for his own benefit, but instead for Lennie’s, because now Lennie did not have to suffer the sadness, punishment he would receive from Curley, and fear he faced when he would accidently kill somebody. What George did was an example of mercy killing because he did it to protect Lennie from all the suffering he would eventually have to face if he had not killed him.

Like what Anselm of Canterbury said” Spare me through your mercy, do not punish me through your justice.” Which lead to what happen in Of Mice and Men where Lennie was convicted of killing Curley’s wife. Since Lennie was already going to get killed by either George or the two people that were as well searching for him for the hunt. George decided to end the suffering of Lennie because he knew that Lennie was special and he been through a lot during the entire story. The way I see Mercy Killing is in a good way because it will make a finish to the agony of the other people so he would not be in such worry of a situation or the way he has been living.

What is mercy? Mercy is: kindness or help given to people who are in a very bad or desperate situation. Mercy killing is a little different than that though. Mercy killing is: the act of putting to death painlessly or allowing to die. The word “mercy killing” actually came from the word euthanasia in the 1640’s, but many people today call it mercy killing. Mercy killing is much like putting a dog down because it is too old and already in pain. In John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, there are a couple times mercy killing takes place throughout the entire book.

Killing for mercy might seem honor worthy with a different point of view, I do not see it that way. Life is something that people should have a choice of, it is their own. A person has the right to live. For example in the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, George should have let Lennie decide, George did not think of what Len¬nie might want. In the book the workers wanted to kill the old dog, Candy did not want to kill him but the other workers pressured him into letting Carlson shoot him, Candy loved the old dog.

Would you ever kill your best friend? If you thought it had to be done? In the novella Of Mice and Men, this is what happens. This novella takes place during the Great Depression and is focused on the lives of two migrant farm workers who move around from place to place in search of new job opportunities; specifically being ranch hands. Their names are Lennie and George they are very much the opposite of each other, but George takes care of Lennie no matter what. The theme of mercy killing is illustrated through Slim killing four of the puppies, Carlson killing Candy’s dog, and George killing Lennie.

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is a novel with such intensity that it really grabs the focus on mercy killing. In the story George has to kill his best friend Lenny because Lenny killed the wife of their boss’s son. So George had to pull the trigger using a method of mercy killing because George knew that the other men were going to give Lenny a slow painful death, so George could not see his best friend di at the hands of another. So George killed Lenny himself.

As the author described how George took the gun out of his pocket, I could not stop reading. I thought that perhaps George would shoot the men as they came to kill Lennie for murdering Curley’s wife. When Steinbeck described how George looked at the back of Lennie’s head, I realised what he was going to

Mercy killing is defined as the intentional killing of someone or something from an incurable, painful suffering. From some people’s point of view, it is humane and by the standards of others, it is not. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, tells the story of George and Lennie, two migrant workers who traveled together. George's intuition and Lennie’s lack-of-maturity characteristics really make them inseparable. Because Lennie has a brain comparable to that of a child (and strength of that of many men), he often cannot distinguish what is right from what is wrong. Lennie ended up taking the life of a women which left George with the choice of either killing Lennie himself or letting him suffer to death in jail or be shot in the guts by victim's husband. George ends up killing Lennie as he feels like it is the right thing to do. George’s actions are a justifiable act of mercy killing.