
In everybody’s life there comes a point where death comes into your mind whether you want to think about it or not it is going to occur in everybody’s life at some point. Hopefully later rather than earlier obviously, but everybody has will pass away. There are many different opinions on what happens to you when this day occurs everybody has their own opinion on what is going to happen. For example, in Christianity you try to be a good person so that you can live eternity in heaven and not hell. Another example is the catholic religion which believes in purgatory which is the afterlife state which is between heaven and hell. In the black mirror episode “San Junipero” it is a virtual reality city where people can upload their brains into computers. It is where old people can live out their fantasies and dying people can be uploaded to the cloud and live there forever. Elderly people can upload their consciousness to the cloud for five hours a week while they are still living than can choose to stay there permanently after they die. San Junipero is perceived in the episode as a big party town everything seems to be great there the partying, the people etc. However, the only way to be able to “pass over” into San Junipero is through euthanasia. Euthanasia is the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relive pain and suffering. The term euthanasia is from the greek language and it literally means “good death”. This is illegal in most countries due to the fact that is considered assisted suicide. Countries that euthanasia is legal are the Netherlands, Canada, Columbia, Belgium and Luxembourg. Euthanasia is a highly debated topic weather it should be legal there are many arguments on both sides or the discussion. It raises many questions in the religious side of it as well.

In this episode there are two main characters Yorkie and Kelly two young woman. Yorkie visits San Junipero for the first time in 1987 on of the first few people she sees at the bar is Kelly who needs her help to lose a boy named Wes. Kelly is surprised at first by what Yorkie is wearing as it is much more modest than what everyone else is wearing she gives her a complement on it and asks here to dance. Yorkie is a shy girl and told Kelly that it is not a good idea for her to dance as she is worried about making a fool of herself she does it anyways and ends up running away as she thought everyone was looking at her. Kelly invites Yorkie back to her bedroom but is rejected as Yorkie tells Kelly that she is engaged to Greg. Next week comes around and Kelly does a complete makeover and ends up sleeping with Yorkie in this episode then the clock strikes 12 and long story Yorkie cannot find Kelly again after a weeks’ past she ends up not finding her until 2002. After all of this in the end Kelly ends up getting married to Yorkie and living in San Junipero with her for the rest of eternity and not choosing to not be euthanized like her husband and daughter and living with them. This surprised me especially after the fight that Yorkie and Kelly got into at the end of the episode it was a shocking decision that Kelly ending up doing this. 

A couple main pros on euthanasia is that it is an end to suffering. The people that use the practice of Euthanasia are terminally ill or they are in a terrible coma. “For the suffering patient the request for euthanasia is regarded as a natural human right” (Trowell 24). Or in the case of Yorkie in the San Junipero episode she was a quadriplegic. She has been lying in the same vegetative state for more than four decades after she got in her terrible car accident when she twenty-one years old. As described in the show Yorkie’s parents are very religious people and always by the book and when Yorkie came out as Lesbian to them they were not happy with her and did not accept the fact that she liked women and their angry response upset Yorkie and she fled home and then got into her massive accident. Another Pro to Euthanasia is that it is the freedom to choose. What I mean by this is that a terminally ill person can choose if they want to end their life and is there choice if they want to do it or not. For example, in the show when Kelly decides to pass over to San Junipero by the method of Euthanasia. 

After doing research on both the pro’s and con’s on this topic there were definitely more con’s regarding Euthanasia. This is where the religious side relates to Euthanasia religion is for sure against any form on euthanasia. There are around ten to eleven bible verses that relate to Euthanasia and they are all strongly against it. One that really stood out to me was Eccelsiastes 7:17 “Do not be excessively wicked and do not be a fool. Why should you die before your time? I interpret this as that God knows when it everybody’s time to die and he is in control not us. This quote contradicts everything that euthanasia is. 

In conclusion, San Junipero was an interesting episode to watch to say the least I have never really watched anything like that. Personally I could never see myself performing this act but, after doing research I guess I could see how people would do this if they were suffering as bad as Yorkie was. San Junipero gave her a chance to finally live a regular life because that opportunity was cut short with her time on earth. 