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Ethics about euthanasia
Ethics about euthanasia
Ethics about euthanasia
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Every day thousands of people are turning to a controversial practice for solving their health problems. This unique “practice that ends the individuals life that is suffering from a terminal illness, disease, or an incurable condition by the means of lethal injection” (Emanuel) thus ceasing the persons life is called Euthanasia. Euthanasia is also referred to as a mercy killing, which is, “the act of putting to death painlessly or allowing to die, a person or animal suffering from an incurable, especially a painful, disease or condition”(Goel). The practice of Euthanasia has a long history that dates back centuries ago. However, it was not until 1906 when the first bill to legalize Euthanasia popped up on American soil. For years on end, American legislatures have been turning down bills of legalizing Euthanasia in America. Through the years 1937 to 1991 Nebraska, New York, Washington, and Oregon have been the few states that have tried to legalize Euthanasia, but have been promptly rejected or turned down and prevented from taking effect.
Today in America, Euthanasia is illegal. In fact, it is almost illegal in every country of the world except for a few places. Euthanasia is legal in the Netherlands and the state Oregon in the United States. These are the only two places in the world that have the correct laws that specifically permit the practice of Euthanasia and assisted suicide. However, the state of Michigan was indeed very close to passing a
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Euthanasia bill to make it legal also but the ballot was defeated. The ballot was defeated due to television ads that were shifting the gears of Euthanasia towards alternatives to Euthanasia and focusing on alternatives such as Hospice care, which is, “t...
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...t to choose when they die?
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References
Emanuel, E. J. (2005). Journal of Clinical Oncology. In Depression, Euthanasia, and Improving End-of-Life Care. Retrieved February 8, 2012, from Official Journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology website: http://jco.ascopubs.org/content/23/27/6456.short
Goel, V. (2008). Euthanasia – a Dignified End of Life! International NGO Journal , 3(12). Retrieved from http://academicjournals.org/INGOJ
Lewy, G. (2011). Assisted Death in Europe and America. Oxford University Press.
McLoughlin, D. M. (2002). Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide, and Psychiatry: a Pandora’s box. Retrieved February 8, 2012, from The British Journal of Psychiatry website: http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/181/4/278
Mitchell, J. B. (2007). Understanding Assisted Suicide. Michigan: The University of Michigan Press.
Bibliography:.. Bernard, Neal, Ed. & Co. d. a. a. a. a. a. Euthanasia: Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints Series, Series Eds. David L. Bender and Bruno Leone.
McDougall, Jennifer Fecio. Euthanasia : A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO, 2008. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 13 Apr. 2014.
Marker and Hamlon. “Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide: Frequently Asked Questions.” International Task Force. 2009. .
Euthanasia is a word whose roots can be traced back to Greece where it meant good death. It encompasses various dimensions, from active where something is introduced to cause death, to passive where treatment or supportive actions are withheld. It also varies from voluntary euthanasia where one consents to it, to involuntary where a guardian can give consent and doctor assisted in which the doctors prescribes the medication and a third party or patient administers the prescription to cause death. Wishes for premature death have significantly contributed to the long debate regarding the role of this practice in the current health care. The debate however cuts across dynamic and complex aspects like ethical, legal, health, human rights, economic, religious, social, spiritual and cultural aspects of the enlightened society (Math & Chaturvedi, p. 889). Here, this intricate issue is argued from both sides of the ongoing debate and also the plight of the caregivers and the victims.
Instead of turning to death as an option, patients should realize that there are other ways to stop pain caused by illness or depression. For example, palliative care is available in today’s society. Palliative care is a medical specialty based solely on pain and is very advanced in today’s technology. If the patients that requested euthanasia were to undergo this treatment, they would not feel pain, or as much as they normally would, and the pain would be more tolerable (O’Steen). Also, in most situations, the longing for death or suicidal death, which was revealed to be clinical depression, can be treated by medicine and sympathetic counseling (Bonin).
The first law explicitly prohibiting euthanasia in the United States was enacted in New York in 1828 (ProCon). Since then many more states have outlawed ...
“Michael Manning, MD, in his 1998 book Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide: Killing or Caring?, traced the history of the word euthanasia: ‘The term euthanasia.originally meant only 'good death,'but in modern society it has come to mean a death free of any anxiety and pain, often brought about through the use of medication.” It seems there has always been some confusion and questions from our society about the legal and moral questions regarding the new science of euthanasia. “Most recently, it has come to mean'mercy killing' — deliberately putting an end to someone’s life in order to spare the individual’s suffering.’” I would like to emphasize the words “to spare the individual’s suffering”.
Euthanasia has been an ongoing debate for many years. Everyone has an opinion on why euthanasia should or should not be allowed but, it is as simple as having the choice to die with dignity. If a patient wishes to end his or her life before a disease takes away their quality of life, then the patient should have the option of euthanasia. Although, American society considers euthanasia to be morally wrong euthanasia should be considered respecting a loved one’s wishes. To understand euthanasia, it is important to know the rights humans have at the end of life, that there are acts of passive euthanasia already in practice, and the beneficial aspects.
In order to provide a framework for my thesis statement on the morality of euthanasia, it is first necessary to define what euthanasia is and the different types of euthanasia. The term Euthanasia originates from the Greek term “eu”, meaning happy or good and “thanatos”, which means death, so the literal definition of the word Euthanasia can be translated to mean “good or happy death”.
Euthanasia is the medical practice of ending one’s life in order to preserve their dignity and relieve extreme pain when quality of life is low. There are several methods of euthanasia of which people choose from. These methods include active, passive, voluntary, involuntary, indirect and assisted euthanasia. As of now, only a few countries have legalized euthanasia. The countries most known for the legalization of it are Belgium, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. In a recent news article titled “Why I Support Assisted Dying”, a Canadian poll revealed that 26 % of physicians would be willing to actually participate in assisted dying and that if euthanasia were legalized, more and more medical professionals would agree with it (Morris, 2013). In this specific article, there is some light shed on the issue in comparison to others which often put a negative spin on the issue. In instances where palliative care is not enough, physician assisted euthanasia is proposed by the article. Due to many of the negative stigmas attached to the matter at hand, many see euthanasia as a social problem which should not be carried out. However, there are plenty of reasons to rectify such attitudes. From a sociological perspective, a functionalist would argue that euthanasia should not be a social issue and should be legalized. Euthanasia is an alternative anyone should have the right to exercise to end one’s own suffering, maintain dignity and pride until the very end, and to free up medical funds that could be used towards saving other lives.
Although physician-assisted suicide is legal in some states, euthanasia is illegal throughout the United States. There are three classifications of euthanasia. One is passive euthanasia, which is the withdrawal of medical treatment with the intention to hasten an ill person’s death. Another is physician-assisted suicide, which involve a doctor knowingly and intentionally providing a person with the knowledge or means to commit suicide. This can include counseling about, prescribing, or supplying lethal doses of drugs. The last kind of euthanasia is active euthanasia or the intentional act of causing death of a patient experiencing great suffering. Another controversial piece to euthanasia is non-voluntary euthanasia. Most people, who are candidates for lack of a better phrase, are either in a coma, too young, senile, cognitively impaired, brain damaged or mentally disturbed. Euthanasia comes down to really what the medical definition of death is. According to Robert M. Vetch from the Yale University Press
The ethical debate regarding euthanasia dates back to ancient Greece and Rome. It was the Hippocratic School (c. 400B.C.) that eliminated the practice of euthanasia and assisted suicide from medical practice. Euthanasia in itself raises many ethical dilemmas – such as, is it ethical for a doctor to assist a terminally ill patient in ending his life? Under what circumstances, if any, is euthanasia considered ethically appropriate for a doctor? More so, euthanasia raises the argument of the different ideas that people have about the value of the human experience.
Euthanasia is one of the most recent and controversial debates today (Brogden, 2001). As per the Canadian Medical Association, euthanasia refers to the process of purposely and intentionally performing an act that is overtly anticipated to end the person’s life (CMA, 1998)
Kuhse, Helga. “Euthanasia.” A Companion to Ethics. Ed. Peter Singer. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 1991. 294-302. Print.
As we all know, medical treatment can help save lives. But is there a medical treatment that would actually help end life? Although it's often debated upon, the procedure is still used to help the aid of a patient's death. Usually dubbed as mercy killing, euthanasia is the "practice of ending a life so as to release an individual from an incurable disease or intolerable suffering" (Encarta). My argument over this topic is that euthanasia should have strict criteria over the use of it. There are different cases of euthanasia that should be looked at and different point of views that should be considered. I will be looking into VE (Voluntary Euthanasia), which involves a request by the dying patient or that person's legal representative. These different procedures are as follows: passive or negative euthanasia, which involves not doing something to prevent death or allowing someone to die and active or positive euthanasia which involves taking deliberate action to cause a death. I have reasons to believe that passive or negative euthanasia can be a humane way of end suffering, while active or positive euthanasia is not.