The Controvery Over Euthanasia

Euthanasia is defined as the deliberate ending of one's life by means of either administering prescribed lethal drugs or withholding life-sustaining treatment. The word itself is derived from the Greek roots "eu," meaning "good,” and "thanatos," meaning "death." Consequently, the issue becomes controversial, as euthanasia advocates argue a "right to die a good death" whilst others deem the killing of another being, regardless of motives, unethical and unlawful. Is it moral to end a life to end suffering? Can one truly die a good death? Is a so-called “good death” dignified? Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide suicide suggest so, yet they are a threat to society and defeat the intended purpose of the medical profession. Euthanasia (physician-

“Euthanasia is the practice of ending the life of a patient to limit the patient’s suffering. The patient in question would typically be terminally ill or experiencing great pain and suffering. The word “euthanasia” itself comes from the Greek words “eu” (good) and “thanatos” (death). The idea is that instead of condemning someone to a slow, painful, and undignified death, euthanasia would allow the patient to experience a relatively good death.”

For instance, if a doctor gave an overdose of medication or gave a lethal injection this would be considered an active euthanasia. Passive Euthanasia is withholding something needed for life. Examples of this might be taking someone off of a feeding tube or life support and letting them die on their own.

Active versus passive euthanasia are two different, albeit arguably similar, ways in which an individual is helped to die. Passive euthanasia involves withholding life-saving medical treatment or removal from life

Euthanasia is a term derived from a Greek word meaning "happy or fortunate in death." It is most commonly used now to denote the "merciful" infliction of death [either actively or passively] to avoid torment in fatal and incurable disease, usually by consent of the patient or his family.

On May 6th 1997, Dr. Nancy Morrison was charged with the first-degree murder of Paul Mills by the means of non-voluntary active euthanasia. Paul Mills was a terminally ill patient who suffered from esophageal cancer. In October of 1996, Mr. Mills had undergone nine surgeries as the result of a post-surgical infection (Fisher, p. 262). As the infection progressed, a Do Not Resuscitate order was put in effect and his family made the decision to withdraw life-sustaining treatment, which should consequently cause a natural death to occur, known as passive euthanasia (Fisher, p. 191). However, Mr. Mills did not then die as expected. His attending nurse Elizabeth Bland-MacInnes described him as suffering and struggling to breathe. After being begged by Ms. Bland MacInnes to end the patient's suffering, Dr. Nancy Morrison injected Mr. Mills with nitroglycerin which should have decreased his blood pressure and as a result, decreased his suffering (Fisher, p. 262). However, this attempt failed and Dr. Morrison proceeded to inject the patient with potassium chloride, consequently ending Mr. Mills life. In acting upon the biomedical ethics principle of beneficence, Dr. Nancy Morrison’s decision to inject Paul Mills with potassium chloride is ethically justifiable.

Euthanasia comes from the Greek words, Eu (good) and Thanatosis (death) and it means “Good death” or “Gentle and Easy Death.” Today, we use the term euthanasia to describe the active death of a patient (“General History of Euthanasia”1). Euthanasia has been used all throughout history, from the early Roman empires to present-day societies. There are two main classifications of euthanasia, voluntary and involuntary. (Nordqvist) Voluntary is when it is used with consent from the individual in need, while involuntary is done without consent, because the individual is incapable of doing it themselves. There are also two main procedural classifications

In the Oxford English Dictionary, “euthanasia” is defined as “the means of bringing a gentle and easy death” (“euthanasia” def. 2). Today, euthanasia is a method used in the medical field to put an end to a patient’s agony by taking their life for them, making it a very controversial topic. Many people argue that it is morally wrong to take a human life, and others may argue that it is even more wrong to make someone suffer more than they need to. I will argue that euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide is in fact morally permissible.

There are two types of euthanasia these being active and passive. Active euthanasia arises in which someone takes active means to end a life, such as a lethal injection, to bring about someone’s death. Passive euthanasia transpires from instances in which someone simply refuses to intervene in order to prevent someone’s death for example switching off someone’s life support machine or withholding life extending medications (Melia, 2014).

Euthanasia is and will always be a topic of controversy due to the fact that euthanasia is

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.

According to American Heritage Dictionary euthanasia is defined as "the art or practice of ending the life of a person or animal having a terminal illness or a medical condition that causes suffering." Euthanasia should be a individual choice to end a patient 's life. This keeps them from going through excruciating pain due to an incurable disease. Some people think euthanasia should be out of the picture while others inquiry the effectiveness of these actions. With effectiveness, euthanasia is classified in three categories.

Passive euthanasia is when life-sustaining treatments are withheld from one and active euthanasia is where lethal substances or forces are used to end a patient’s life (Nordqvist, 2015).

Euthanasia is a term that originated from the Greek language: eu meaning "good" and thanatos meaning "death". Generally, euthanasia implies the intentional termination of life that is initiated by a person who wishes to commit suicide. However, euthanasia has many meanings and as a result, has several terms that define and differentiate various types of euthanasia. For instance, passive euthanasia is altering a form of support thereby hastening the death of a person, i.e. removing life support or not delivering CPR. Causing the death of a person through a direct action and in response to the request of that person is considered active euthanasia. When information and/or the means are supplied by the physician to commit suicide, it is

Euthanasia is the practice of ending an individual's life in order to relieve them from an incurable disease or unbearable suffering. The term euthanasia is derived from the Greek word for "good death" and originally referred to as “intentional killing” ( Patelarou, Vardavas, Fioraki, Alegakis, Dafermou, & Ntzilepi, 2009). Euthanasia is a controversial topic which has raised a great deal of debate globally. Although euthanasia has received great exposure in the professional media, there are some sticky points that lack clarity and need to be addressed. Euthanasia is a divisive topic, and different interpretations of its meaning, depend on whether the person supports it or not. While a few societies have accepted euthanasia, there are