Presently, many cases of euthanasia had occurred around the world. Many a time we will stop and ask whether the person has anymore hope to live as a normal person. At the end it is left to the court to decide whether the people live or die. But why does the patient or the guardian choose euthanasia when they can live a longer time with their loved ones. Some might ask whether it is worth to see your loved ones suffering, wouldn’t it be better to end the suffering? To answer this question we must know what euthanasia means. According to Fergusson(1992) euthanasia which comes from the Greek word ‘eu-thanatos’ which means “well death” or “good death”(Fergusson, A. 1992). Besides that according to the oxford dictionary sixth edition (1986) the definition of euthanasia is to” bring about gentle death especially in the case of incurable and painful disease”. According to the Journal of the Americans Medical Association (as cited in BBC,n.d) there are more than one way of defining good death(BBC,n.d). This means that good death is define according to one personal view of euthanasia or when he is in a situation that is critical to his health. Some people want to die a death that involves less pain. According to BBC(n.d) voluntary euthanasia happens when voluntary death is define as the request for mercy killing is done (BBC,n.d). According to BBC(n.d) non-voluntary euthanasia happens when the patient is unconscious(BBC,n.d).
There are two concepts of euthanasia. One is “active” and the other “passive euthanasia”. As BBC (n.d) pointed out active euthanasia is define as when there is an intentional action that causes the patient to die(BBC,n.d). This means an act to kill the patient instantly, whereas passive euthanasia accordi...
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Ostler,G & Swannell,J.(1986) The Little Oxford Dictionary. Oxford university
Gibb,Frances.(2009,June 3). Debbie Purdy takes assisted suicide case to the house of lords. The Times. Retrieve from http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article6414255.ece
House of lords,(2004) Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill[PDF Document]. Retrieved from http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200304/ldbills/017/2004017.pdf
Politics.uk.co (2005,Jun 25) .Euthanasia . Politics.uk.co. retrieved from http://www.politics.co.uk/briefings-guides/issue-briefs/health/euthanasia-$366667.htm
The UK Statue Law database(n,d) Suicide Act 1961
Twycross,G,R.(1993).A Doctor Dilemma. Journal of The Christian medical Fellowship,pg1
WHO,(n.d).Palliative care .World Health organization. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/cancer/palliative/definition/en/
There are two types of euthanasia: passive and active. Passive or voluntary euthanasia refers to withholding life saving treatments or medical technology to prolong life. For example, a patient has the right to refuse medical treatment. They also have the right to refuse resuscitation if they are in need to be placed on life support. Active or involuntary euthanasia refers to providing the means for someone to take their life or assisting with taking their life (“Euthanasia” Discovering).
The definition of euthanasia is simple: "Easy, painless death." But the concept of euthanasia proposed by adherents of the euthanasia movement is complex and has profound consequences for all. Because the subject involves the discipline of medicine (diagnosis, treatment, prognosis, medical ethics and so on) as well as the discipline of law, the general public will have difficulty understanding it without some knowledge of these matters.
There are two main classifications of euthanasia: voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary euthanasia is conducted with the consent of the patient while involuntary euthanasia is conducted without consent from the patient themselves, but with the consent from another person. With this, there are two procedural classifications of euthanasia which include passive and active euthanasia. Passive euthanasia happens when life-sustaining treatments are withheld – the doctor doesn’t “know” that the patient
Euthanasia is the act of ending a person’s life through lethal injection or through the removement of treatment. Euthanasia comes from the Greek word meaning “good death.” When a death ends peacefully, it is recognized as a good death. In modern society, euthanasia has come to mean a death free of any pain and anxiety brought on through the use of medication; this can also be called mercy killing, deliberately ending someone’s life in order to end an individual’s suffering. Anything that would ease human suffering is good. Euthanasia eases human suffering. Therefore, euthanasia is good. Because active euthanasia is considered as suicide or murder, it is a very controversial issue and therefore, illegal in most places. Although there are always
Euthanasia is put into two categories: Passive and Active. In Passive Euthanasia, doctors will i...
Voluntary-Active euthanasia has many fundamental conflicts which make it problematic. For Voluntary-Active euthanasia to take place, an individual must show an interest in ending their own life. One must consider the mental state of a person with a life-threatening disease or severe trauma and the pain involved. Are they disregarding the possibility of recovery in an attempt to relieve their pain? With the sudden onset of disease or severe injury, many people lose hope and gain a sense of defeat. It could be this sense of hopelessness that drives some to the conclusion of Voluntary-Active euthanasia. Sometimes the guilt of burdening family and friends with the task of financing the individual's healthcare and prolonging their worry will influence such decisions when that is simply not the case. On the other end of the spectrum, sometimes persons are unfairly coerced into accepting Voluntary Active euthanasia as an option due to family member's greed or desire to end the afflicted persons perceived hopeless situation without proper understanding. Many times a person is more easily influenced during periods of great stress making the argument of Voluntary-Active euthanasia a question of the origin of a person's decision to accept it.
Euthanasia is generally referred to as a conscious choice of death, caused by various factors. In a narrow sense, euthanasia is when a person wishing to death, and the person inflicting death, assess the situation positively, as their welfare. We also distinguish active euthanasia, which involves the administration of suitable substances that lead to the death of the human body, and passive euthanasia, in which a person is deprived of resources and life-sustaining substances. Euthanasia is usually succumb to those terminally ill or suffering from very serious
The controversy over euthanasia has recently become highly publicized. However, this issue is not a new debate. Society has voiced its opinions on the subject for hundreds of years. Euthanasia, which is Greek for "good death", refers to the act of ending another person’s life in order to end their suffering and pain.1 Two forms, passive and active euthanasia, categorize the actions taken to end the person’s life. Passive euthanasia involves removing a patient’s life support, withholding food and water, and discontinuing medical treatments. Active euthanasia includes any direct action taken to cause the death of the person, such as administrating a lethal drug.2 The debate over this issue stems from moral, ethical, and religious beliefs. All of these standpoints either side with the patient dying a natural death or from an accelerated death by euthanasia.
Euthanasia is the intentional causing of a painless death. Euthanasia should be legal in every state. It is already legal in some areas and if put to a vote in every state, it most likely would become legal. Every state resident should be given the opportunity to vote on the issue. It should also the right of a competent patient to decide his own life, or death. If it is within an individual's rights to commit suicide it should be legal to ask for help if needed.
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.
Euthanasia has always been defined as easy and gentle death especially in cases of painful and incurable illness. It has also been referred to as mercy killing of those considered hopelessly ill, incapacitated or injured patients. It is a matter of life and death. To medical practitioners the dilemma remains: prolong
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.
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”.
Smith, M. (2002, October 24). THE RODRIGUEZ CASE: A REVIEW OF THE SUPREME COURT OF CANADA DECISION ON ASSISTED SUICIDE.Government of Canada . Retrieved December 26, 2010, from dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/Collection-R/LoPBdP/BP/bp349-e.htm#B. Section 12(txt)
There exist three different types of euthanasia: active, passive and voluntary. Active euthanasia refers to the process of injection of painkillers and sleeping pills in order to reduce the time of suffering of a patient by making his death less painful. On the other side, voluntary euthanasia refers to the case of the conscientious patient, who voluntarily demands from the doctor to give up on treatments. In this case the patient is conscious that he will die soon and regardless that stops the treatments. In my discussion related to whether euthanasia should be legalized or not I will refer only to active and voluntary euthanasia arguments.