Most people think that Euthanasia is a cruel way of ending someone 's life, but in fact many people want to die due to having an incurable or painful disease. Many people seek the counsel of their physician when they no longer want to live, in hopes of gaining euthanasia advice. There is much controversy surrounding physician assisted suicide. A doctor should not have the right to euthanize a patient because they are not God and do not have the priviledge to determine when a person should die. “Euthanasia comes from the Greek words eu meaning "good" and the Greek word Thanatos meaning "death" which basicly means to take a deliberate action with the express intention of ending a life to relieve suffering and pain” (A General History of Euthanasia). The actions of good death have been applied for hopeless patients who have been suffering extreme pain since the ancient ages. These actions were forbidden from time to time in Mesopotamia, Assyrian physicians forbade euthanasia so the patient’s were drowned in the River Ganges in India (A General History of Euthanasia). The first ever recorded use of euthanasia was when World War II broke out in the 1940s, they were mainly used on handicapped children and the mentally ill by the Nazis (ProCon.org). There are two classifications of euthanasia; voluntary euthanasia, which is conducted with consent. Since 2009 it has been legal in Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the states of Oregon (USA) and
The history of euthanasia can be traced back to the classical antiquity times when many Greek and Roman philosophers considered suicide a “good death” and an appropriate response to a variety of circumstances (Dowbiggin 7). During that period, people would kill themselves through various means such as fasting, drinking poison, and hanging themselves. Unexplained pain due to certain diagnosis caused a spike in suicide which allowed the given
Euthanasia is a controversial topic regarding whether or not physician-assisted suicide should be further legalized. Euthanasia is the act of a medical doctor injecting a poison into a patient 's body in order to kill them. Some argue that euthanasia should be legalized to put people out of pain and misery. However, others argue that some people with terminal illnesses would do anything to live longer and believe that it is a selfish and cowardly act. Euthanasia is disputable because of the various ethical issues, including, but not limited to: murder and suicide illegality, the Hippocratic Oath, and medical alternatives. As someone who has had many traumatic experiences and who wants to become a doctor, I am very passionate about the well-being of my future patients and the responsibility to do no harm to them. For these lawful, logical, and personal reasons, euthanasia should not be legalized.
Assisted suicide is an ethical topic that has sparked up many controversies. Individuals have heated disputes on whether or not patients who are suffering should have the right to die. Some worry that legalizing euthanasia is irrational and would violate some religions, while others argue that it provides a peaceful death towards terminally ill patients who are suffering from pain. Physician-assisted suicide is a contentious matter, in which there are many positive and negative aspects, whether or not it should be committed is a complex decision.
Euthanasia, the practice of intentionally ending a life to relieve pain and suffering, dates to the first and second centuries. Euthanasia comes from the Greek word Eu (good) and Thanatosis (death). While euthanasia typically refers to the assistance of a painless death for a chronically or terminally ill individual who would otherwise suffer, it meant something else to Nazi Germany during the reign of Hitler. Euthanasia actually became Nazi Germany’s first program of mass murder.
People have different perspectives and views on Euthanasia or Physician-assisted suicide and how they should or should not be legal. In some cases people feel as if the patient who are suffering from a terminal painful disease should have the right to commit suicide in other cases people feel as if the patient is being selfish to end their life when you have loved ones that are going to suffer because they killed themselves. People feel it should or should not be legal because of right to die, living wills, and Hippocratic Oath.
In the United States, euthanasia is still illegal with the exceptions of Oregon, Washington, Vermont, California and Montana. Oregon was the first state to legalize it in November of 1997. Oregon was followed by Washington in November of 2008, then Montana in December of 2009.
Active voluntary euthanasia is legal in Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands with rules and regulations. I believe that euthanasia will eventually become a legal practice within years to come. The amount of elderly citizens living longer and suffering from incurable, debilitating diseases has grown. The fact is not everyone wants to live to be 99 unless the ability to actually live a happy productive life is still possible.
Taking the word euthanasia literally means “a good death” (Cavan 7). The definition of euthanasia is “the act of killing or permitting the death of sick or injured individuals (Cavan 12). The topic of euthanasia has become a very large debate ethically and legally. Only 3 states in the U.S. have made euthanasia legal since 2004 (Issitt and Newton). A man by the name of Dr. Jack Kevorkian also known as “Dr. Death” assisted in over one hundred and thirty euthanasia cases. He was eventually charged with second degree murder and out in prison (Pearson). The Ancient Greeks used methods like euthanasia before we ever did. They allowed any suicides to happen. The only thing was the doctors could not give out deadly poison to citizens (Doubissin). These doctors also took what is know as the hippocratic oath. This says that a doctor will not give nor suggest harmful medicines to patients (Pearson). Many people believe assisted suicide is acceptable in cases of terminal illness, but it is morally wrong and considered murder.
The controversy of a doctor assisting their patient who is already dying, end their life sooner to save them from continuous unnecessary pain and agony has been the topic of controversy for years. The practice of euthanasia is in my opinion a mercy and should not be banned because in reality it doesn’t physically hurt anyone. You could say it hurts the patient but then again that patient is already in tremendous pain or in an incapacitated state of no recovery, as in paralyzed or brain damage etc., so in reality it would actually help them by assisting ending their pain by assisted suicide. A doctors job is also always help their patients and the practice of assisted suicide in many ways is actually helping the person. However there has and probably always will be people who do not agree with the idea of a dying person end their life for sooner than nature had intended. This demographic would suggest that by dying by your own hand or assisted by a physician for medical reasons is still considered plain suicide. And for the religious people it is a sin by their beliefs. The people could also argue that it is not a person’s right to make that decision.
Euthanasia or voluntary assisted suicide is described as the relieving of pain or suffering. In many Country’s this is illegal, but there are a few that it is still legal to do in. As of June 2015, human euthanasia is legal only in the Netherlands, Belgium, Colombia and Luxembourg. Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland, Germany, Japan, and Albania and in the US states of Washington, Oregon, Vermont, New Mexico and Montana.
Transition: Let me show states where euthanasia is legal. According to Talha Khan Burki article, “Attitudes and practices towards legal euthanasia” in August 2016, shows states where euthanasia is legal: Belgium, Canada, Luxembourg, Netherlands, India, Japan. Five US states also legalized euthanasia: California,
Often times many people who live with terminal illnesses suffer so terribly that they become depressed. These people then decide that their pain is not worth living through anymore and turn to euthanasia. Euthanasia is the painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease or in an irreversible coma. However there are two different types, active and passive. Active is dubbed “good death” meaning it is the most peaceful usually done by drugs. Passive (which is seen as more unethical) refers to restraint of the basic means of survival such as depriving the patient of food, dehydration, and discontinuation of medicines. The practice as a whole is illegal in most countries. Euthanasia, also called assisted suicide, is equivalent to manslaughter in the justice system and the government has dismissed any ideas to fund it. Some question if it is ethically correct to give doctors permission to end a patient’s life; but should an extremely ill person have a say on whether he or she wants to end his or her life? Although euthanasia is seen to be inhumane and
The term Euthanasia is derived from the Greek words, Eu (good) and Thanatosis (death) meaning a very gentle and easy death. The definition of euthanasia has now come down to “the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals (as persons or domestic animals) in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy.” Therefore, this term can be also called “mercy killing”. In this sense euthanasia means the active or inactive death of a patient. This form of “easy death” for hopeless and suffering patients has been around since ancient ages as, Mesopotamia strictly forbade euthanasia following the sixth commandment “thou shall not kill”, India practiced it by drowning incurable patients in the Ganges
Euthanasia is the Greek word meaning “good death”. Euthanasia is the act of assisting in ending one’s life, killing a person or an animal in a painless or minimally painful way.
Euthanasia is a controversial issue. Many people believe that doctors should not prescribe any medication that ends a person’s life since it is considered to be against the Hippocratic Oath. The Hippocratic Oath states that doctors are professionally obliged to save lives. Some consider euthanasia to be immoral and others say that it is murder. Euthanasia should