Life and Death
Life and death are sensitive subjects that humans frequently leave to fate unless other crucial variables are considered. Many societies punish, stigmatize, and discourage any act aimed at taking someone's life. Maggie in the film Million Dollar Baby considers euthanasia and asks others to assist her in dying. Frankie is unconcerned about her plea to assist her in dying. Finally, he injects her with adrenaline. Though he felt that he had done this secretly, Scrap had seen him and he writes his daughter a letter telling her of how evil the father was for helping Maggie with her wish to die.
Advanced Decision Making on Health
According to Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (n.p), a person should make an advanced decision on what should be done in case their health is in a critical condition. In the article, the author states that a decision made by an individual while in good health and a sober mind will relieve the relatives and medics the burden of having to reconstruct the values, goals and preferences of an individual. According to Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (n.p.) all the decisions made by an individual on the nature of care that they prefer are legally binding.
Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide
Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (n.p) notes that some people would not want to endure life support where they understand that there are no chances of survival. Alaska forbids mercy killing, euthanasia and assisted suicide. However, a decision not to receive care when one can afford it can be considered as one of these actions. Declining to receive medical attention should be considered as euthanasia and those supporting the decision participate in mercy killing. Therefore, this decision is not moral from the perspective of the society in Million Dollar Baby.
Works Cited
Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. Planning ahead can ease the pain of life-or-death decisions. Alaska Dispatch News, May 17, 2016. Web: https://www.adn.com/sponsored-content/article/planning-ahead-can-ease-pain-life-or-death-decisions/2016/04/28/. March 21, 2017.
Clint Eastwood (Dir). Million Dollar Baby. Clint Eastwood, Albert S. Ruddy, Tom Rosenberg and Paul Haggis(Prod.). Released on December 15, 2004
