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| George killing Lennie |
At then end of the story Of Mice and Men, George commits a very important and thought provoking action. He performs an act of mercy killing on Lennie because he knows that if he doesn't take out Lennie himself in the most quickest, unpainful way possible, then Curley, who wants to slowly torture and kill Lennie, will instead. According to the law, he has committed an act of murder. George and Lennie's loneliness and isolation from society has lead them to this situation. How? Well first of all, they have no home or family so they are forced to work on this ranch. Secondly, Lennie has a mental disability and cannot control himself. Lennie kills Curley's wife (which causes Curley the wanting to kill Lennie), by accidentally breaking her neck without willing to. Remember, this story takes place in the 1930s of The Great Depression where no social help is available. Therefore, Lennie has nobody to turn to for professional help.
Now let's look at this act of mercy killing in modern society. First of all, what is mercy killing? According to dictionary.com, the definition of mercy killing is: "Also called mercy killing. the act of putting to deathpainlessly or allowing to die, as by withholding extreme medical measures, a person or animal suffering from anincurable, especially a painful, disease or condition." Mercy killing is legal in only certain parts of the world. These parts are: Netherlands, Belgium, state of Oregon in the US, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Luxembourg, Albania, Switzerland, Thailand.
In this post, I will talk about two controversial events that have to do with mercy killing in Canada. The first event is the case of Robert Latimer.
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| Robert Latimer and his daughter, Tracy Latimer |
Robert Latimer is a farmer from Saskatchewan. His daughter Tracy has been born severely disabled with cerebral palsy. She also has a mental disability. Latimer was told that Tracy needs more operations to fix a hip dislocation that occurred from her scoliosis. He was also told that the operation would create even more pain then the intense pain she was already experiencing. Pretty much, think of all the disabilities and disorders that a person can possibly have and think about the most amount of pain a person can have, without dying. This is Tracy. Robert Latimer, her father, one day decides to take her out of her misery by committing an act mercy killing. He kills her by putting her in his pick up truck and connecting a hose from the exhaust to the cab resulting in suffocation. This was a painless death for Tracy. However, even from his valid points that he and his lawyer have presented, he was charged with first-degree murder and sentenced to life in jail. Tracy shows a perfect example of loneliness and isolation from society. She has severe conditions that make her disabled. She can't walk, and she can barely communicate. She has no potential for anything which is why she cannot interact with society. Nothing is possible for Tracy. Her life was hopeless. What dream did Tracy have? We don't know however it is obvious that Tracy's dream was to be a normal human being like everyone else. She wanted to have a life that me and you have. Who wants to be disabled and can't literally do anything and suffer in aggravating pain all your life? Nobody, and neither did Tracy.
Another example of mercy killing in modern society is of a man named Terry Graham. He is a 65 year old man with advanced diabetes which has cost him leg and his sight. He also has mitochondrial myopathy, an exceedingly rare degenerative muscle disease that afflicts not many Canadians. He has not escaped his room in 6 years. His life is hopeless. He is constantly needing someone to be there for him and to help him eat, and do other tasks. Terry Graham wants to kill himself however he does not have the energy to do it. He can't jump off his balcony, nor does he have the energy to grab a knife to kill himself. If he gets another person to hand him a knife, they will be sent to jail. So now he is living in misery, stuck in his room and suffering tremendous amount of pain. He's hopeless. His "dream" (if I can use that term), is to be dismissed from his misery and killed. However he cannot due to the laws that are stopping anyone from committing an act of mercy killing towards Terry Graham.
These are two events that have shocked Canada and forced us to revisit our laws. Unfortunately, our law system isn't perfect. In my opinion, I think mercy killing should be legalized because Terry Graham is right. It is that person's life and they should have the right to do that they want to it. There shouldn't be some government law forcing them to not do whatever they want to their life. I mean really, just think about it. If you were in so much and you were extremely disabled, blind, deaf, have many uncurable diseases, and are just living everyday in huge amounts of pain, wouldn't you want to die peacefully? This is something for you to think about. This connects to Of Mice and Men because, like I said in the beginning, George killed Lennie in an act of mercy killing. This mercy killing has resulted from a chain of events that have resulted in their loneliness and alienation, such as Lennie's disability and inability to communicate with others without causing problems.
Thanks for reading,
~ Ramez Fares
Sources:
Freitas, N. "Terry Graham Dreams of Death with Dignity, but His Life Is the Real Nightmare." 2012.
Freitas, N. "Case of Robert Latimer - Facts of the Case and Time-line." 2012.
Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. New York: Penguin, 1937. Print.
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