Euthanasia Reflection Paper

“Right to Die” Euthanasia Reflection Paper

“One of the most important public policy debates today surrounds the issues of euthanasia and assisted suicide. The outcome of that debate will profoundly affect family relationships, interaction between doctors and patients, and concepts of basic ethical behavior. With so much at stake, more is needed than a duel of one-liners, slogans and sound bites.”

Q.) What is Euthanasia?

A.) Throughout North America, committing suicide or attempting to commit suicide is no longer a criminal offense. However, helping another person commit suicide is a criminal act. One exception is the state of Oregon which allows people who are terminally ill and in intractable pain to get a lethal prescription from their physician. This is called "Physician Assisted Suicide" or PAS.

The word Euthanasia originated from the Greek language: eu means "good" and thanatos means "death". One meaning given to the word is "the intentional termination of life by another at the explicit request of the person who dies." 2 That is, the term euthanasia normally implies that the act must be initiated by the person who wishes to commit suicide. However, some people define euthanasia to include both voluntary and involuntary termination of life. Like so many moral/ethical/religious terms, "euthanasia" has many meanings. The result is mass confusion.

Q.) Why is this an issue?

A.) People have many different reasons for wanting to end their life by committing suicide:

► Some are severely depressed over a long interval. To them, suicide may be a "permanent solution to a temporary problem." There is a consensus that a better solution for most clinically depressed people is treatment, using counseling and/or medication. Such treatment can give to the person decades of enjoyable life which would have been lost if they committed suicide.

► They live in excessive, chronic pain. Some, due to poverty or lack of health-care coverage cannot afford pain killing medication. Others are denied adequate pain killers because of their physician's lack of knowledge, inadequate training, or specific beliefs. Most physicians feel that suicide in such cases is not a preferred solution either; a better approach is proper management of pain through medication. There appears to be a lack of collective will to make this happen. Many, perhaps most, people die in excessive, though treatable, pain.

► They have a terminal illness and do not want to diminish their assets by incurring large medical costs as their death approaches. As an act of generosity, they would rather die sooner, and pass on their assets to their beneficiaries.