Ethical Arguments For and Against Voluntary Euthanasia Essay

In recent times, there has been much debate about whether or not Euthanasia should be permitted. Voluntary Euthanasia is when terminally ill people wish to have their lives ended with the assistance of medical procedures before nature takes its course. This is because they may be suffering and in great pain, or cannot live a reasonable or comfortable life. Voluntary Euthanasia should be introduced, provided that there are safeguards to stop the system from being misused.

To fully understand the issue at hand, one must understand the various forms of euthanasia. The Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary: Tenth Edition defines euthanasia as “the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals…in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy.” Euthanasia can be either passive or active. Passive euthanasia occurs when a patient is relieved of medical treatment and is allowed to die naturally. Active euthanasia occurs when either a physician or a family member actively takes the life of the patient, perhaps through lethal injection, and eliminates a natural death process. Many people commonly use the word “euthanasia” to refer to assisted suicide. Essentially, assisted suicide is a form of active euthanasia in that a person, usually a physician, aids in the suicide of a patient.

Euthanasia, formally known as mercy killing, is the act of intentionally causing the painless death of a sick person, rather than allowing that person to die naturally. In terms of a physician's actions, it can be passive in that a physician plays no direct role in the death of the person or it can be active in that the physician does something directly to cause the death (Yount, 2002). Euthanasia may also be formed into three types of act, which are voluntary, involuntary, and nonvoluntary. Voluntary involves killing the patient at his or her request. Involuntary occurs when the patient does not give consent, or refuses. Nonvoluntary is where the patient is not able to make the decision about their medical treatment so it is up to a third

The World Health Organization (WHO) Centre for Health Development (2004) explains that the term euthanasia comes from the Greek word for “good death”. The modern definition for euthanasia, according to the WHO, is “a deliberate act undertaken by one person with the intention of either painlessly putting to death or failing to prevent death from natural causes in cases of terminal illness or irreversible coma of another person” (WHO, 2004, p. 25). There are two types of euthanasia: active and passive. Active euthanasia involves an action that directly causes another’s death and can be voluntary or involuntary (Leming & Dickinson, 2016). Passive euthanasia involves the withholding of treatment from a terminally ill patient with the intended consequence of hastening death; this can involve refraining from nutrition, hydration, cardiopulmonary resuscitation or potentially life-saving

Within the scope of euthanasia are passive and active euthanasia. Passive euthanasia occurs when a patient refuses access to medical care or treatments, as is allowed by their freedom to legally choose whatever treatment they wish to receive or withhold (Stoyles et al 683). However, their decision to withhold from receiving treatments may result in a hastening of their death. Passive euthanasia is legal in the United States (Stoyles et al 683). However active euthanasia is illegal and is often misconstrued as being identical to physician-assisted suicide. Despite similarities, they are different in technical terms. Both euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide have the same intent and end result. However in euthanasia, the doctor is responsible for administering the lethal injection or other agent of death. In physician assisted suicide, the physician prescribes the patient a lethal injection which the patient will themselves administer (Boudreau et al 2). In both cases, the patient consents to the treatment, but only physician-assisted suicide is legal in certain states within the United States.

Active euthanasia should be permitted as a medical treatment to allow people the right to die with dignity without pain and in peace. Euthanasia, also known as assisted suicide or mercy killing, takes on many different forms. When most Americans think of euthanasia, they think of a specific form that is referred to as “active euthanasia” which means to actively do something that will end a patient’s life with or without that individual’s consent. When euthanasia is performed in an involuntary manner it is usually because the patient is comatose, unconscious, or otherwise unable to communicate whether or not they want to have their life prolonged through artificial means. In such cases, the physician makes an

The differentiation of passive and active euthanasia is by the basis of the act and the intent of person and paitent. The act of passive euthansisa is defined as withholding treatment that is keeping the paitent alive, therefore allowing the paitent to die. Whereas, active euthanasia is to take direct measures to end the paitents life.

According to Webster’s dictionary the term euthanasia Is defined as, “ the act or practice of killing someone who is very sick or injured in order to prevent any more suffering.” Now then there are two primary types of euthanasia according to Rachel’s. We have Passive Euthanasia in which the physician does nothing to bring about the death of the patient. By this physician doing nothing, ceasing treatment, the patient dies of the illness he already was diagnosed with. The patient dies of natural causes. The doctor is therefore letting the patient die. Then we have Active Euthanasia were the physician does something to bring about the death of the patient. The physician gives the terminally ill patient a lethal injection therefore now making the doctor the

Voluntary active euthanasia refers to an intentional and persistent request by a clearly competent patient for aid in dying. As a result, the patient of the person acting on behalf of the patient, for example, a family member or physician, takes active measures to hasten the death by either self-administration, administration by a tier, or the provision of a means. In voluntary active euthanasia, the assistant acts last. However, scholars, such as Daniel Callahan does not support any social policy concerning voluntary active euthanasia, since it results in an equality of power by putting a patient’s life and death in the hands of another person, which violates human dignity.

As citizens of The United States we embrace a variety of numerous freedoms. Freedoms which give people the right to free speech, the right to bear arms, and the right to due process of the law. Living in a nation where citizens are afforded so many rights lead me to the question, do we have the right to die? There are many people in the world who are against Euthanasia. Points are brought up that it is murder, it is not moral to end someone else’s life, and giving the consent to a doctor to do such an action gives them too much power. In the unfortunate event that one is terminally ill and clinging to life in unbearable pain, should people have the rights to be euthanizing or rather the right to mercy or should one be forced to suffer

What is euthanasia? The dictionary defines euthanasia as the act of putting to death or allowing to die painlessly, a person or animal from a painful incurable disease. Euthanasia is also known as mercy killing. The word euthanasia comes from the Greek word eu- meaning good and the Greek word thanatos which means death. There are two types of euthanasia: active euthanasia and passive euthanasia. Active euthanasia is the practice of ending the life of a person painlessly. While passive euthanasia is the practice of a patient refusing treatment or allowing a patient to die. Many believe that it passive euthanasia is morally acceptable, but active euthanasia is not. They believe it is acceptable to stop treatment and allow the person to act,

Euthanasia is an act undertaken by health physicians with the intention of ending a person’s life to relieve that persons suffering and pain by causing their death. Most people today refer to it as ‘mercy killing’ as it is considered to be a good death because it ends unbearable pain or distress being caused by lifelong, terminal illnesses, diseases or conditions. A terminal illness is where there is no expectation of recovery from the illness. Euthanasia can be voluntary or non-voluntary. A terminally ill patient can request to end their life so they can be put out of their pain, and this is called voluntary euthanasia. Non-voluntary euthanasia means that the person who is ill never requested to end their life. Euthanasia is also either active or passive. Active euthanasia means that the voluntary person will be given a legal dose of substances to end their life. Passive euthanasia occurs when treatments for the illness or the suffering are withheld and nothing is done to keep the patient alive. The underlying reasons and intentions for ending a patients life makes a significant impact on the decision whether the patient should be euthanised or not. If a persons life is valued and the death is for the patients benefit and for nobodies personal interest, then euthanasia is permissible. Our society is made up of many different values, opinions and beliefs. There are a range of people who say we must respect the value of life and view euthanasia as murder. Euthanasia is a

Euthanasia is the killing of a patient who is painfully suffering with the help of a doctor. The classifications of euthanasia are voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary euthanasia is the consent of the patient and involuntary is the consent by another person because the patient is unable to do it themselves. There are also two procedures known as passive and active. Passive euthanasia is when the doctor stops doing something that will keep the patient alive. Active euthanasia is when the doctor does something that will cause the patient to die. Many people believe that passive is more acceptable than active. Active is more a controversial issue due to religious and ethical beliefs. Euthanasia passive and active should be legal everywhere because it gives the patient the right to choose, give them dignity, does not harm others, and helps stop their suffering.

Euthanasia is an act or practice of causing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy, it is also called mercy killing. Also, it defines euthanasia as assisted suicide, physician-assisted suicide. This means to take a deliberate action with the  intention of ending a life to relieve intractable suffering.

Pertaining to Ms. Benchetrit first point, Euthanasia is clearly superior to palliative care or Hospice care: As my colleague already stated, Using Ontario physician fees, they calculated that euthanasia could cost between $269 to $756(check these numbers). This also depends on the doctors or drugs involved in the process. However, Palliative care or hospices cost around $1100 per day in an acute care hospital bed, $630-$770 per day in a bed at a palliative care unit and $460 per day in a residential hospice bed. By using euthanasia, it saves the patient an enormous amount of money. Also, sadly, palliative care is not a cure and just prolongs someone's life for no reason. In addition, Palliative care can be difficult for families because they have to watch their loved one in a terrible state when they are slowly dying. Palliative care is still an acceptable option for some people, although euthanasia is a preferable alternative that should be authorized in Canada.