Is Euthanasia A Lethal Injection?

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.

Some veterinarians are seeing more requests for convenience euthanasia due to the growing money problems and stress that family’s sometime face. “Philosophers, such as Steve Sapontzis, has argued that one does cause harm to an animal even by killing it painlessly,

Passive euthanasia can be defined as letting the patient die. The doctor takes the patient off their treatment and let the disease run through until they die. Active euthanasia is not legal today, and leans more toward killing the patient. The patient is ready to die so the doctor gives a lethal injection to speed up the process. Physician assisted suicide is almost a combination

Euthanasia is categorized in various forms. The first category deals with the patient’s consent. Voluntary euthanasia refers to a patient making the voluntary enduring demand to be assisted with the procedure of assisted suicide while involuntary euthanasia is ending the patient’s life without their consent or awareness. Euthanasia is also categorized in the approach the patient’s life was ended. Active euthanasia is ending a patient’s life by the use of drugs with or without the aid of a physician. Passive euthanasia is terminating a patient’s life by disregarding the necessary actions to maintain life such as withdrawing water, food, drugs, medical and surgical procedures. While passive euthanasia is legal in Canada, active euthanasia is considered murder and is illegal.

Voluntary Euthanasia has been considered a controversial topic for many decades. The idea of committing an act that involves the taking of human life is not one that many people would care to discuss openly. The main argument is that a person who has been diagnosed with an incurable illness and is in extreme pain and their ability to move has been limited, while that person still has control over their destiney should they be allowed take their own life (Bowie, R.2001). The worldwide debate weather one should be allowed to end a life is still one of the biggest ethical issues. The attempt to providing the rights of the individual is in conflict with the moral values of society. Voluntary Euthanasia has been highly rejected by many religious and pro-life institutions.

There are numerous different types of physician assisted suicide one of them being euthanasia. Euthanasia is when a physician prescribes the treatment as well as directly administers the treatment to the patient. Euthanasia also breaks down into four separate categories; active, voluntary, passive, and involuntary. Active is the act of giving treatment to end one’s life while passive withholds from treatment that sustains life, while voluntary is when the patient gives their consent to the treatment and involuntary is when the patient is to a point they are unable to give the consent they need. Euthanasia is illegal in the United States and

Legal Aspects: Euthanasia is illegal in most countries, although doctors do sometimes carry out euthanasia even where it is illegal. Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium, are the only three countries in the world that have legalized euthanasia. Both countries Netherlands and Luxembourg laws also allow PSA or physician assisted suicide. In the United States, the states of Oregon, Washington and Montana legalized physician assisted suicide, but euthanasia remains illegal.

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.

The most commonly known forms are passive and active euthanasia. Passive is when a patient refuses life saving medical treatment, and active is when lethal medication is injected into the patient. Euthanasia itself is “intentional killing by act or omission of a dependent human being for his or her alleged benefit” (Batten 398-400). Assisted suicide is when “someone provides an individual with the information, guidance, and means to take his or her own life with the intention that they be used for this purpose” (Batten 398-400). Physician-assisted suicide is when a doctor is the one who assists, such as by prescribing a lethal dose of medication. Assisted Suicide is legal in Oregon, Washington, Montana, Vermont, and New Mexico. New regulations were brought about when these states legalized assisted suicide. Specifically, you must make two oral request and one written one, two doctors must be convinced that the decision is voluntarily, and you must be over eighteen (Batten

Forty five states and the District of Columbia consider assisted suicide to be illegal and prohibit euthanasia under general homicide laws.

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.

The fact that passive euthanasia is already practised can be an argument for voluntary active euthanasia. If it was legalised then it would show consistency. Both would be carried out for the same reason of lessening the amount of pain suffered by the patient. Only the means are different, the intentions are the same.

The legalization of euthanasia has always been a highly debatable topic since it causes philosophical, religious, moral and ethical controversy where some people believe it reduces our respect for the value of human life and it will be a gateway for other immoral actions to be normalized even though it is a basic human right that patients all over the world are denied to this day.

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,

In current times we have made many technological advances that have boosted the medical productivity in hospitals. However, the rapid development of medicine is far from being a long term resolve for many health issues. We have a plethora of people whose quality of life is very low and has no chance of improving. During these situations allowing the person to end their life via euthanasia should be allowed. I will argue that Euthanasia is morally permissible in some cases because there are several moral justifications that argue for ending one’s life.