Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: euthanasia
Euthanasia is the practice of ending the life of a person or being because they are perceived as living an intolerable life, in a painless or minimally painful way either by lethal injection, drug overdose, or by the withdrawal of life support. Euthanasia is a controversial issue because of conflicting religious and humanist views.
Voluntary euthanasia occurs with the fully informed request of a decision from a competent adult patient or that of their surrogate.
Nonvoluntary euthanasia occurs without the fully informed consent and fully informed request of a decision-competent adult patient or that of their surrogate.
Involuntary euthanasia occurs over the objection of a patient or their surrogate. An example of this might be if a patient with decisional capacity is told they will be euthanized.
The Slippery Slope
Many people worry that if voluntary euthanasia were to become legal, it would not be long before involuntary euthanasia would start to happen.
This is called the Slippery Slope argument. In general form it says that if we allow something relatively harmless today, we may start a trend that results in something currently unthinkable becoming accepted.
Those who oppose this argument say that properly drafted legislation can draw a firm barrier across the slippery slope.
The Print media reports SMH
November, 2002 article called Endgame in Australia gives a summary of legislation across Australia with regard to Euthanasia, in A further article titled The Unbearable Pain of Being reported in The Age May 31 2002 gives opinion with regard to slippery slope argument, with the Dutch experience where Euthanasia can be performed with the authority of two separate psychiatrist's reports.
The Catholic Church does not approve of any methods to purposely kill someone even the terminally ill. Catholicism teaches that people should have food and water until the die naturally.
When a person is suffering from a terminal illness or other end of life medical conditions, I believe palliative care professionals can assist these persons in alleviating their suffering without the need for the persons electing to consider any form of euthanasia.
When the power to take life is taken into human hands, we can use it for evil purposes or misuse it. Someone might call a person with a disability not fit to live and choose to kill them. In addition, the elderly might not want to be a burden on their family and kill themselves. Euthanasia is a very dangerous slippery slope.
Accepting euthanasia weakens society's respect for life.
Euthanasia is divided into two separate classifications consisting of passive euthanasia and active euthanasia. Traditionally, “euthanasia is passive when a physician allows her patient to die, by withholding or withdrawing vital treatment from him…euthanasia is active when a patient's death results from his physician's killing the patient, typically by administering lethal medication” (Varelius, 2016). While active euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide share many of the same characteristics, they differ in the role for committing the final act, resulting in the death of the patient. A third party, consisting of either a family member or the physician, is responsible for “pulling-the-plug” in active euthanasia. On the other hand, in physician-assisted suicide, it is ultimately up to the patient to commit the final death-inducing act. Varelius suggests that the separation of passive and active euthanasia can be explained by the involvement that the physician partakes in their patients’ death
According to Gamliel (2012), euthanasia refers to actions or omissions that result in the death of a person who is already gravely ill. Techniques of active euthanasia range fro...
Another reason a patient may opt to euthanasia is to die with dignity. The patient, fully aware of the state he or she is in, should be able choose to die in all their senses as opposed to through natural course. A patient with an enlarged brain tumor can choose to die respectively, instead of attempting a risky surgery that could leave the patient in a worse condition then before the operation, possibly brain-dead. Or a patient with early signs of Dementia or Alzheimer’s disease may wish to be granted euthanization before their disease progresses and causes detrimental loss of sentimental memories. Ultimately it should be the patient’s choice to undergo a risky surgery or bite the bullet, and laws prohibiting euthanasia should not limit the patient’s options.
For example, a patient has the right to refuse medical treatment. They also have the right to refuse resuscitation if they are in need of life support. Active or involuntary euthanasia refers to providing the means for someone to take their life or assisting with taking their life (“Euthanasia”). There are several important ethical issues related to euthanasia. One is allowing people who are terminally ill and suffering the right to choose death.
They must provide informed consent, or risk medical negligence. They must also receive voluntary consent from a patient before any medical intervention. (Robertson, 2015, pp. 82). Therefore, involuntary passive euthanasia goes against the foundation of health care ethics. Involuntary euthanasia is only used in cases where the person is unable “to make a meaningful choice between living and dying, and an appropriate person takes the decision on their behalf” (BBC, 2014). Why is then that patients who are competent to make decisions are euthanized without consent? A health care provider’s judgement of a patient’s quality of life often comes into
to a request from that person. Involuntary Euthanasia is used to describe the killing of a person
Euthanasia is the fact of ending somebody’s life when assisting him to die peacefully without pain. In most cases, it is a process that leads to end the suffering of human beings due to disease or illness. A person other than the patient is responsible for the act of euthanasia; for example a medical provider who gives the patient the shot that must kill him. When people sign a consent form to have euthanasia, it is considered voluntary, involuntary euthanasia is when they refuse. When people are not alert and oriented they are not allowed to sign any consent including the consent to euthanasia. When euthanasia is practiced in such situation, it is a non-voluntary euthanasia. In sum, people who practice voluntary euthanasia in honoring other
The right to assisted suicide is a significant topic that concerns people all over the United States. The debates go back and forth about whether a dying patient has the right to die with the assistance of a physician. Some are against it because of religious and moral reasons. Others are for it because of their compassion and respect for the dying. Physicians are also divided on the issue. They differ where they place the line that separates relief from dying--and killing. For many the main concern with assisted suicide lies with the competence of the terminally ill. Many terminally ill patients who are in the final stages of their lives have requested doctors to aid them in exercising active euthanasia. It is sad to realize that these people are in great agony and that to them the only hope of bringing that agony to a halt is through assisted suicide.When people see the word euthanasia, they see the meaning of the word in two different lights. Euthanasia for some carries a negative connotation; it is the same as murder. For others, however, euthanasia is the act of putting someone to death painlessly, or allowing a person suffering from an incurable and painful disease or condition to die by withholding extreme medical measures. But after studying both sides of the issue, a compassionate individual must conclude that competent terminal patients should be given the right to assisted suicide in order to end their suffering, reduce the damaging financial effects of hospital care on their families, and preserve the individual right of people to determine their own fate.
Euthanasia is an action that result in the death of a person. There are four types of euthanasia, such as voluntary active euthanasia, nonvoluntary active euthanasia, voluntary passive euthanasia, and nonvoluntary passive euthanasia. Among the four types of euthanasia, voluntary active euthanasia or VAE is the most controversial ethical issue in the United States. It is the killing of a competent patient who decided to end his/her suffering by ending his/her life with the help of the physician. VAE is illegal in the Unites States; however, it is morally just. Voluntary active euthanasia is legitimately moral on the basis of Immanuel Kant’s human dignity, the utilitarian’s Greatest Happiness Principle, and James Rachel’s view of active euthanasia.
Legalization of euthanasia would also place us on a ‘slippery slope’. The ‘slippery slope’ argument, proposed by Walker [2], stated that if euthanasia is legalized, more immoral actions would be permitted and those actions might not be able to keep under control. One example is that involuntary euthanasia would start to happen after the euthanasia has been legalized. The Netherlands has legalized the euthanasia twelve years ago. This law at first...
Our values, opinions and beliefs depend on what culture, religion and the society we come from. People who are against view euthanasia as murder and that we must respect the value of life. Those who are in favor of euthanasia believe that doing such act eliminates the patient’s pain and suffering. Also, the right to die allows the person to die with dignity. Euthanasia may involve taking a human’s life, but not all forms of killing are wrong nor consider as murder. It depends on the underlying reasons and intentions. If you value a person’s life and the cause of death is for the patient’s benefit and not one’s personal interest, then euthanasia is permissible.
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)
Robert Matz; Daniel P. Sudmasy; Edward D. Pallegrino. "Euthanasia: Morals and Ethics." Archives of Internal Medicine 1999: p1815 Aug. 9, 1999 .
Lewis, P. (2007). The Empirical Slippery Slope from Voluntary to Non- Voluntary Euthanasia .Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 20, 197-205.
One reason why the solution to have the patient consent to euthansia and have legal documentation of the consent is the patient would have be evaluated to show thier complete understanding of thier decision and know the consequences of that decision, which if the evaluation showed no understanding the assistance would not occur. The family would also be able to express thier feelings to the patient about the decision. This would help further asses the pati...