Euthanasia Essay

[1]Euthanasia, derived from Greek literally means good death. It is the act or practice of killing someone who is terminally ill or injured in order to prevent any more suffering. Some people could call it mercy killing. But is killing someone prematurely right? Why haven't more countries legalized euthanasia? Ask someone involved in caring of the terminally ill, they would simply argue that it is a slippery slope to assisted murder.

be fed orally because of blistering in the mouth and throat. Any movement of the

It wasn’t until the beginning of the 12th century and the rise of Christianity that physician assisted suicide viewpoints changed because of the religious belief that life is a gift from God and that no one had the right to take a life. Consequently, the Hippocratic Oath was taken seriously and faithfully followed by physician thus sparking the debate for legal assisted suicide for centuries to come.

Euthanasia, as defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is considered to be, “the act or practice of killing someone who is very sick or injured in order to prevent any more suffering” (2015).Within this can be found different methods of euthanasia including passive or indirect euthanasia which requires withholding of basic life-saving measures such as oxygen, nutrition, hydration, or resuscitation. Another form is direct euthanasia which can be caused by administered drugs, injections, or suffocation. In its entirety, euthanasia has been debated as an ethical issue through its many forms and reasoning (Methods of euthanasia, 2011).

When someone is inevitably dying and in inexplicable pain is it really a crime to grant their wishes and end their suffering? As of right now euthanasia is illegal in many countries and is a very controversial topic. Is it compassion for the patient helping them in ending their life or murder? The doctor is not giving death as an option, it is the patients choice and even where it is legal there are many rules. Euthanasia should not be considered a crime because the patient is not being murdered; they are having their suffering end in a painless, humane way out of compassion for the patient and their family.

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

that they will be used for this purpose. When it is a doctor who helps

As patients come closer to the end of their lives, certain organs stop performing as well as they use to. People are unable to do simple tasks like putting on clothes, going to the restroom without assistance, eat on our own, and sometimes even breathe without the help of a machine. Needing to depend on someone for everything suddenly brings feelings of helplessness much like an infant feels. It is easy to see why some patients with terminal illnesses would seek any type of relief from this hardship, even if that relief is suicide. Euthanasia or assisted suicide is where a physician would give a patient an aid in dying. “Assisted suicide is a controversial medical and ethical issue based on the question of whether, in certain situations,

I would like to begin by defining the issue of the article by Patrick Nowell-Smith. The issue of his article is legalizing euthanasia and giving people a right to decide when and how to die.

Euthanasia is often called “mercy killing”. It is intentionally making someone die, rather than allowing that person to die naturally. It is sometimes the act of ending someone’s life, who is terminally ill, or is suffering in severe pain. Euthanasia is mostly illegal in the world today. Euthanasia can be considered a form of suicide, if the person afflicted with the problem actively does it. The person volunteering to commit the act to that person can also consider it a form of murder.

In the past, euthanasia was practiced in the U.S mainly by with-holding treatment and allowing for a passive death. Back then the act of killing was not an option, but actions were passively taken to indirectly provide death. The earliest American statute explicitly to outlaw assisting suicide was enacted in New York in 1828. Until about the nineteenth century, euthanasia was considered as a mere method of gentle death. Soon the many controversies started to arise on whether the act should be allowed or not. It was around the time of Darwin’s theories on evolution and social conditions in which favor towards euthanasia began sprouting again. His theories on evolution challenged the idea that God created us, and that it was his right to choose our fate. By the 20th century, the New York State Medical Association began its efforts to legalize euthanasia. Even though euthanasia is illegal in all states of the United States, Physician aid in dying (PAD), or assisted suicide, is legal in the states of Washington, Oregon, Montana, and Vermont. What differentiates the two is how the lethal dose is administered. Euthanasia would entitle the physician to take lead, whereas PAD requires the patient to self-administer the medication.

A medical examiner from Oakland County, Michigan and three researchers from the University of South Florida have studied key characteristics of 69 patients whose suicides were assisted by Jack Kevorkian between 1990 and 1998. Their findings are published in the December 7 New England Journal of Medicine.

There are 3 different types of euthanasia. Volantary - which means that the doctor, or whoever performed the assisted death got full permission from the patient to kill them. Nonvolantary - without full consent of the patient or if the patient did give them their full consent, they weren’t fully decisionally-competent. And Involantary - this is when the person is killed against their will, they refuse to die but they are still killed. This Is murder!

Euthanasia, which is also referred to as mercy killing, is the act of ending someone’s life either passively or actively, usually for the purpose of relieving pain and suffering. “All forms of euthanasia require an intention to accelerate death in order to benefit patients experiencing a poor quality of life” (Sayers, 2005). It is a highly controversial subject that often leaves a person with mixed emotions and beliefs. Opinions regarding this topic hinge on the health and mental state of the victim as well as method of death. It raises legal issues as well as the issue of morals and ethics. Euthanasia is divided into two different categories, passive euthanasia and active euthanasia. “There are unavoidable uncertainties in both active and

Euthanasia is the act of killing hopelessly sick or injured people or animals in a painless way to put them out of their misery. There are five types of euthanasia, but two types are voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary euthanasia is when a person requests to end their life due to a painful illness with no hope of survival, and involuntary euthanasia is the person dying requests a faster death through infancy or capital punishment. Two kinds of euthanasia in particular are suicide; when you take your own life without help, and assisted suicide; when you have a terminal disease and cannot commit suicide, so you allow someone else to do it for you. The interesting thing about euthanasia is that it is only legal in the Netherlands, Belgium, Colombia, and Luxembourg. Although euthanasia is not legal in the following places, assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Canada, and in the US states of Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Vermont, Montana, Washington DC, and California. The ethical theory that agrees with suicide is Ulitarianism, while Kantianism would be debatable.