The Issue Of Legalizing Voluntary Euthanasia

Moreover, from the legislation perspective, the height of arbitrariness, injustice and abuse is reached if euthanasia is legalized, since there is no sufficient legal resort to exercising euthanasia. It is accepted the possibility that even other people may sign a request for euthanasia on behalf of the incapacitated patient and in the presence of witnesses. In addition, the law doesn't provide any specific punishment against physicians giving euthanasia without the necessary requisites. The choice of euthanasia becomes serious when it takes the form of a murder committed by

Terminally illness is any disease that curtails life even for a day. Once euthanasia is socially acceptable and legalised it would widen the practice to any medical condition, not just for terminal illness, we will consider euthanasia as a treatment option. Dr Gunning states: ‘once you accept killing as a solution for a single problem, you will find tomorrow hundreds of problems for which killing can be seen as a solution.’ Dutch doctors have been killing terminally ill, to killing chronically ill, killing physical disease to killing mentally distressed, who has no physical illness, to killing newborn babies just because they have birth defects. The experience of Netherlands and Belgium in legalising, points the fact that once legalised it cannot be effectively controlled.

Euthanasia is the practice of ending the life of an individual for the purposes of relieving pain and suffering. Over the years, there has been a big debate about its merits and demerits, and the debate is not about to end anytime soon. However, no matter what side of the debate one supports, it is important to consider a few facts. One, the prolonged stay in hospital is bound to raise medical costs. Two, some medical complications bring suffering and pain to the patient without any possibility of getting back to one 's normal activities of daily living. However, ending the life of a person intentionally may be treated as a serious crime in some jurisdictions. Given these facts, it is evident that making a decision about euthanasia is bound to be a challenging task. Although not everyone might agree, euthanasia is a necessary procedure that relieves the pain and suffering of the patient and rids the family and the government of expensive medical costs that would not necessary improve the life of the patient.

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.

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.

In most of the western countries, the legislators are no longer keeping the rights of people to decide whether or not they want assisted-death if

Because the individual circumstances regarding the judgment of patients’ conditions and the implementation of assisted suicide can vary quite profoundly, a policy solution to the regulation of these practices must be flexible and capable of reacting appropriately and adjustably in the assessment of each individual case. The way the Dutch have handled the variance of these cases may provide the United States with a practical model to follow for a future system of conduct since they have “left as much room as possible for medical professionals to apply the norms of medical ethics and the medical standard to unique situations” (Griffiths 265). Additionally, the openness of the Dutch situation concerning the practices of PAS and euthanasia has helped foster public confidence in what doctors are doing an how authorities are handling it (Griffiths 269). It would jeopardize patients’ autonomy, the handling of palliative care, the basis of medical ethics and our society’s value for life and transparency if criminalized, unregulated and secretive practices of PAS and euthanasia were to continue. Therefore, legalization and open regulation must be seriously considered as possible policy

Active euthanasia is a subject that is raising a lot of concern in today’s society on whether or not it should be legalized and under what circumstances should it be allowed. This is a very tricky subject due to its ability to be misused and abused. There are a wide variety of things that need to be considered when it comes to who should be allowed to request active euthanasia such as, is it an autonomous choice, do they have a terminal illness, is their quality of life dramatically decreased, and are they in pain and suffering. Both James Rachel and Daniel Callahan have very different opinions on active euthanasia and whether or not it should be allowed. However both authors manage to provide a substantial argument on where they stand regarding active euthanasia.

The debate could shift from a right to assisted suicide in cases of terminal illness to a more general right to die based on quality-of-life grounds (Barbara). Some are concerned about the physically disabled being targeted by the right to physicians’ assisted suicide. This however, is invalid because doctors will only be allowed to facilitate the terminally ill with death; the physically disabled do not fall into this category. Moreover, there are many rules and safeguards regarding the implementation of physicians’ assisted suicide. The process to actually receive medical facilitation for death is thorough and detailed, so mistakes are hardly

Through researching and studying about lawsuits and the history behind this outlawed practice I hope to discover fresh information for the audience to consider. There are a few states that have made euthanasia legal, and there are other states where this practice is not illegal. Another interesting point about this topic is that it has been an issue for thousands of years. There is plenty of views and knowledge to gather about this subject.

Today, voluntary euthanasia is getting closer to being legalized in more than just one state in the United States. “‘Voluntary’ euthanasia means that the act of putting the person to death is the end result of the person’s own free will” (Bender 19). “ Voluntary euthanasia is an area worthy of our serious consideration, since it would allow patients who have exhausted all other reasonable options to choose death rather than continue suffering” (Bender 19). The question of whether or not voluntary euthanasia should be legalized is a major debate that has been around for years. Because the issue of whether people should have the right to choose how they want to live or die is so complex. With the advances in technology today we have made

Euthanasia, or voluntary assisted suicide, has been the subject of much moral, legal and human rights debate in Australia. Broadly speaking, this term is used to describe the termination of a person’s life to end their suffering, usually through the administration of drugs. The core of this debate is centred on how to mitigate and pacify competing values; an individual's desire to self autonomy and freedom and choice to die with dignity when suffering, alongside with the devaluation of human life as a consequence that is formed through the legalisation of euthanasia. Due to the nature of the topic of euthanasia that is shrouded with ethical controversy and ambiguity, there is difficulty in legal justification and establishment of voluntary

The type of euthanasia that will be discussed is voluntary euthanasia and there are several areas which must be covered before coming to a conclusion as to whether this should be carried out. The first I'll mention is 'personhood'. This is the essence of someone which makes them a person, distinguishing between us and the animals. There are several other aspects of personhood including the ability to communicate and interact with others and also

The deliberate act of ending another 's life, given his or her consent, is formally referred to as euthanasia. At present, euthanasia is one of the most controversial social-ethical issues that we face, in that it deals with a sensitive subject matter where there is much uncertainty as to what position one ought to take. Deliberately killing another person is presumed by most rational people as a fundamental evil act. However, when that person gives his or her consent to do so, this seems to give rise to an exceptional case. This can be illustrated in the most common case of euthanasia, where the person who is willing to die suffers from an illness that causes great pain, and will result in his or her demise in the not-so-distant future.

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