Euthanasia and the Giver

Euthanasia is the practice of purposefully ending someone’s life in order to relieve their pain and/or suffering. Euthanasia is legal in many countries including Belgium, France, India, Japan, and few states

Imagine a cancer patient on a short rode to death. The pain this patient is experiencing is unreal and unimaginable to most. The pain medicine that can be used does little to take the agony away. The doctors can put the patient in an induced coma, but what kind of living is that? It is not living. The patient does not want to go on. Is it so wrong to ask for a way out? With less than six months to live, the patient’s hope is gone. Many argue that euthanasia is not ethical, but is it really ethical to let someone live in constant, horrifying pain and agony? While in some cases having the right to die might result in patients giving up on life, physician-assisted suicide should be legalized in all fifty states for terminally ill patients with worsening or unbearable pain.

If the option of euthanasia were available the sufferer could say their final goodbyes, savor precious moments with the ones they love, then, with the help of their physician, slip slowly into a peaceful sleep from which they would never awake. Ending the life of the patient would not only ensure that their suffering would finally be over, but it would give the family the peace of knowing that their loved one ended their life in a state of comfort. I am not saying that we should encourage someone to give up the fight of their life. Euthanasia is not to be forced onto someone. Euthanasia is an option to be given to those who have no other choice and are in desperate search of a solution to their suffering. Euthanasia is something to be turned to when the quality of life is so poor that the patient isn’t living, they are merely existing.

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.

It has been argued that for people on life support systems and people with long standing diseases causing much pain and distress, euthanasia is a better choice. It helps in relieving them from pain and misery. In cases like terminal cancers when the patient is in much pain and when people associated with them also are put through a lot of pain and misery, it is much more practical and humane to grant the person his/her wish to end his/her own life in a relatively painless and merciful way.

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).

If a patient can come to a decision when it is time to stop treatment for their terminal illness, then they should also be allowed to choose when to bring death. End of life care has become just as important of an issue to physicians as well as the patients. If physician-assisted deaths were permitted in all 50 states, physicians could openly discuss end of life wishes with their patients. The term “Terminally ill”, Is a terminal condition that is a disease or process that will result eventually in a patient's death, no matter what treatment is given. Of course, this could

Furthermore, the right to die, according to the book, Euthanasia, by Linda Jackson, is considered a basic human right. Medical professionals have claimed to have had their patients not wish to undergo the heaviness of sedation. Today, relationships between doctors and their patients have appeared to be more equal, instead of just relying on the doctor, when it comes to making decisions about the patient’s health (Jackson 30). Given these points, allowing euthanasia to terminally ill patients would give them the chance to choose to end their distress, which therefore allows the right to die and the right to decide which type of treatment the patient would receive.

Life at one point has to end, and in circumstances maybe a little early. When you see life, you see a person who is happy with problems no bigger than bills and most of all healthy with a whole long life to live, but when you are terminally ill it may be a completely different point of view. When you are sick, you do not enjoy life, but wish for it to end; Why? You say, well you are not living your life when you are in pain. The pain is all you feel and it is way more sad when you know it is not going to end. Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide have given patients an opportunity to decide how they want to die and even an opportunity on how they want to be remembered. For this patients, there point of view is not of them quitting, it is of them feeling suffering and not wanting their children to remember the bad times instead of the good times when the patient was healthy. Physicians should help terminally ill patients die in peace if they decide to because they have the right to determine how to live and die and how they want to safeguard income and expenses.

Euthanasia or physician assisted suicide, is the painless killing of a patient, suffering from a painful or incurable disease, like cancer, or alzheimer 's, the practice is illegal in most countries, including the United States, although in the United States, it is a state decision, the only state in the United States that it is legal in is Oregon. Oregon passed the Death with Dignity Act in 1994, making euthanasia legal for chronically ill patients, the only caveat is that the doctor is allowed to prescribe the medication, but they are not allowed to administer the drugs, the patient must do that themselves (Arnold, 17, 2004). Euthanasia is a controversial topic that can spark many different feelings. Some people may feel that if they are suffering that they want to end their pain, or if they have a fatal illness that they just want to speed the process along. Others, generally not a patient that is in the situation that would be in a position to consider euthanasia as a real option, feels that it is murder and morally wrong. As a potential social worker, I must say that I feel that euthanasia is wrong and should not be practiced in any form. I feel that palliative or end of life care that would make the patient more comfortable in their final days is a more valuable option than ending a life prematurely with the assistance of a doctor.

Euthanasia has been around for many generations. However it has often been questioned whether or not a patient whom has no hope of recovery has the right to decide when and how to end their life. Euthanasia is often defined as ‘the act of deliberately ending a person’s life to relieve suffering’ (NHS choices , 2014). Euthanasia is also described as Mercy killing, however Mercy killing is occasionally defined as allowing someone to die, by withholding extreme medical measures (Dictionary.com, 2015 ). Euthanasia is a very complex issue and has been a controversial issue for a long time, dating back to the time when ancient romans and Greeks supported euthanasia and its practice after the Hippocratic

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

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.

Legalizing euthanasia provides a way to relieve extreme pain. Modern medicine has brought great benefits to humanity such as prolonging life, but by prolonging life it is also

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