In David by Earle Birney, David asks Bobby to push him off a cliff, because he is injured, and does not want to live. People have drastically different viewpoint on euthanasia, which can oftentimes change when faced with the prospect of putting a friend or a loved one out of their misery. Euthanasia is defined as Mercy killing, or assisted suicide.
Early in the poem Bobby finds a robin with a broken wing lying in the grass, Bobby wants to keep it, and tame it to have it as a pet, but David kills it, asking, Could you teach it to fly? This shows that Bobbys initial viewpoint was against euthanasia. Later in the poem, after David falls off the cliff, he says to Bobby that he wants to go over, meaning that David wanted Bobby to push him over the cliff. Bobby lies to David, to avoid the question, thus affirming his point of view. After sitting with David for a while, thinking about his decision, David said Id Do it for you, Bob, meaning that if Bobby were injured, David would do him the favour of putting him out of his misery. Bobby, then, changing his viewpoint, decides to go through with it, and puts David out of his misery.
Unlike Bobby, throughout the entire poem David was for euthanasia. At the beginning, where Bobby wanted to tame a robin, David instead kills it, to put it out of its misery. Davids moral is that if you cannot do what you love to do, life is not worth living. David proves his point, by saying that if he were rescued, or survived the experience, that he would forever in a wheelchair, and would not be able to climb, doing what he loves to do. Following this moral, he confirms his wish to be pushed off the cliff and put out of his misery.
Every person has a different viewpoint on euthanasia. Their viewpoints may switch sides, but people may still like their original side. This is shown with Bobby, who does not want to kill David, but in the end does. Personally, I am both for and against euthanasia. I am for it under certain circumstances. I am for it if someone is injured to the point where they will die whether or not you help them, as it is in some way a good thing, and helps them by making them not live the rest of their lives in pain and suffering. I am not for euthanasia if someone is not seriously injured or immobilized, and if they still have something to live for in life then they should keep on living.