The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines euthanasia as the act or practice of killing someone who is very sick or injured in order to prevent any more suffering. That sounds a little harsh, does it not? Here is the definition, restated with some different words, the intentional action of a licensed medical professional, to kill someone who is very sick or injured in order to prevent any more suffering. While the first definition may not seem so bad, the second one is distinctly harsher.
There are two different classifications of euthanasia. There is voluntary and involuntary euthanasia. Voluntary euthanasia is simply euthanasia conducted with consent, whereas involuntary euthanasia is euthanasia conducted without consent. This is a fairly straightforward point, right? Well, it gets more complex. There are also two different procedural classifications of euthanasia. They are active and passive euthanasia. Active euthanasia is when lethal substances or measures are taken to end a patient’s life. The other procedural classification, passive euthanasia, is the withholding of life-sustaining treatments. Some people feel as if the definition of passive euthanasia is debatable.
I believe that euthanasia, as a drastic course of action, should not be legal. In my opinion, the only exception to this that should exist is euthanasia being used to carry out punishment for a crime. Euthanasia should only be used to punish criminals who have committed a crime that the punishment of their crime is the death penalty.
Allowing euthanasia would weaken society’s respect for the sanctity of life. The human life should be valued no matter the person’s race, age, gender, religion or social status. A person does not have to make so...
... middle of paper ...
...ly grows as they do. Dr. Stevens, executive director of the Christian Medical and Dental Society, said, “ If we can’t even control the actions of one doctor—Jack Kevorkian—when physician-assisted suicide is illegal, how can we expect to regulate the actions of thousands of doctors where physician-assisted suicide is legal?” He makes a valid point, if Dr. Kevorkian couldn’t be controlled, what difference does having regulations in place make? Regulations won’t keep a vulnerable person from being pressured into choosing death.
I believe that euthanasia, as a drastic course of action, should not be legal. In my opinion, the only exception to this that should exist is euthanasia being used to carry out punishment for a crime. Euthanasia should only be used to punish criminals who have committed a crime that the punishment of their crime is the death penalty.
Euthanasia should be illegal because it goes against the sanctity of life, de-vaules human life, and it violates the Hippocratic oath in which doctors must take.
Euthanasia comes from the Greek word that means “good death” (“Euthanasia” Literary). In general, euthanasia refers to causing the death of someone to end their pain and suffering oftentimes in cases of terminal illness. Some people call this “mercy killings.”
Nobody wants to experience this great hardship, watching someone you love turn into almost nothing. I believe the concept of euthanasia should be legalized because of the pain and suffering to both the patient and the family, the cost of medications and treatments, and lastly because of the decline of quality of life for the individual.
The voluntary active euthanasia is legitimately moral. It is morally right for a person to seek euthanasia because it is their freedom or autonomy to control their own lives. It ends the suffering of the patient without harming other people. Furthermore, it prevents the person to suffer by giving him/her lethal injection or medication that prevents a person to die slowly with pain. On the other hand, the arguments against euthanasia are not sound. A thorough assessment will protect patient who request euthanasia for the benefits of others. A patient who seek for euthanasia does not use him/herself as means, but as ends to respect his/her own humanity. Furthermore, God as a benevolent will not allow a person to suffer which endorse the purpose of euthanasia – to end suffering. Therefore, voluntary active euthanasia should be legalized in the United States.
whilst, euthanasia is defined as; an intentional means of causing the death of a person, the motive being to benefit that person or protect him/her from further suffering.
“Euthanasia is defined as a deliberate act undertaken by one person with the intention of ending life of another person to relieve that person's suffering and where the act is the cause of death.”(Gupta, Bhatnagar and Mishra) Some define it as mercy killing. Euthanasia may be voluntary, non voluntary and involuntary. When terminally ill patient consented to end his or her life, it is called voluntary euthanasia. Non voluntary euthanasia occurs when the suffering person never consented nor requested to end a life. These patients are incompetent to decide because they are either minor, in a comatose stage or have mental conditions. Involuntary euthanasia is conducted when it is against the will of the patient (Gupta, Bhatnagar, Mishra). Euthanasia can be either passive or active. Passive euthanasia means life-sustaining treatments are withheld and nothing is done to keep the patient alive. Active euthanasia occurs when a physician do something by giving drugs or substances that ends a patient’s life. (Medical News Today)
In the end Euthanasia is not something that should be frowned upon or looked at as a crime. Instead, it should be looked upon as a final act of respect for the human being who lived his life well and now knows that it is time to set his life to an end.
Euthanasia is defined “as the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals in a painless way”. Euthanasia a controversial topic and it’s legalisation has been a topic of debate for years. The Catholic Church believes that Euthanasia should be legalised because it goes against human life, they are made in the image of God and it goes against the salvific value of suffering. The majority of society believes Euthanasia should be legalised as everyone has a right to control their life, it is already widespread and guidelines could be put in place if it is legalised.
Euthanasia is described by the Oxford English Dictionary as ‘The bringing about of a gentle and easy death, especially in the case of incurable and painful diseases’ .
Before defining and discussing the three major categories of euthanasia, it is important to understand the meaning of their subtypes known as active euthanasia and passive euthanasia. Active euthanasia is performing a direct action to take someone’s life, such as administering a lethal drug to a patient. Passive euthanasia is allowing someone to die by not performing some life-sustaining action or ending life-sustaining treatment (Pojman). Examples of passive euthanasia would be removing a patient’s respirator or withholding nutrients and fluids. Active euthanasia is easily the more controversial of the two.
Euthanasia is defined in several ways by an assortment of people, but the definition that I will use is the definition of euthanasia that is derived from the Greek language meaning, “merciful, easy, painless death” (Hooker 1). An example of this would be physician assisted suicide for terminally ill patients as the lethal injections would kill a person without causing additional stress
Euthanasia is ending the life of a person deliberately to relieve their pain. It usually happens when a person is terminally ill or is suffering from a lot of pain and there is no other option to relieve the pain.
Euthanasia, according to the dictionary, means the killing of a person who is suffering from an incurable disease. Lately, it had been a huge debate over whether euthanasia should be legalized or not. Personally, I believe that euthanasia should be legalized if it is voluntary. I have three reasons for my argument.
Euthanasia is a medical procedure which speeds up the process of dying for people with incurable, painful, or distressing diseases. The patient’s doctor can stop treatment and instead let them die from their illness. It come from the Greek words for 'good' and 'death', and is also called mercy killing. Euthanasia is illegal in most countries including the UK . If you suffer from an incurable disease, you cannot legally terminate your life. However, in a number of European countries it is possible to go to a clinic which will assist you to die gracefully under some very strict circumstances.
"Mercy Killing" as Euthanasia is also known, has been outlawed within the United States. The definition of mercy killing is where someone is terminally ill with a disease, and an accomplice helps to end the misery of that victim's life. In my opinion, this decision should be a live and let live decision. If and only if the victim agrees ahead of time before the pain starts to end it, then they should live their life the way they want to; if that includes ending it the way they want to, so be it. Atop this highly controversial topic are many illnesses which have led to the popularity of Euthanasia. Among those are Cancer, Aids, and Alzheimer's. There is a very slim need for the use of Euthanasia today in my opinion.