The word euthanasia originated from the Greek language as explained in Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide: Introduction (Robinson). It means the intentional termination of life by another at the explicit request of the person who dies. This means that the person who dies must ask someone else to help them kill themselves. However, euthanasia can include both voluntary and involuntary termination of life. Sometimes people end up being victims of euthanasia without giving consent because their doctors feel that there is little hope of them, passing it off as an act of mercy to mollify themselves. Euthanasia shouldn’t be considered suicide; it should be considered murder because a person committing suicide doesn’t need any help doing it whereas a person who uses euthanasia as a means of death needs the help of a physician or another trained person.
As informed in an article by B. A. Robinson, contrary to some misplaced beliefs, there are many types of euthanasia (Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide). These include: passive euthanasia, active euthanasia, physician assisted suicide, and involuntary euthanasia. Passive euthanasia is the hastening of the death of a person by altering some form of support and letting nature take its course. Overdose of morphine is the most common form of passive euthanasia. Active euthanasia involves causing the death of a person through a direct action, in response to a request from that person. Physician assisted suicide occurs when a physician supplies information and/or the means of committing suicide to a person, so that they can easily terminate their own life. Involuntary euthanasia describes the killing of a person who hasn’t explicitly requested aid in dying.
Many peop...
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...her life should have the full weight of the justice system brought down on them. It’s a doctor’s job to help, not kill. Euthanasia just isn’t right. It isn’t fair to the families of the patients and it’s not fair to the patient, either
Works Cited
Burke, J. Balch and Randall K. O’Bannon. “Why We Shouldn’t Legalize Assisting Suicide: Part III: What About the Terminally Ill?” http://www.nrlc.org/euthanasia/asisuid3.html.
Finsterbusch, Kurt. Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Social Issues. McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., Dubuque, Iowa. 2006: 256-267.
“In a Nutshell.” http://www.balancedpolitics.org/assisted_suicide.htm.
Robinson, B. A. “Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide: Introduction.” 1997 – 2002. http://www.religioustolerance.org/euth1.htm.
Yount, Lisa. Euthanasia. Lucent Books, Inc. San Diego, California. 2001: 11-12.
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.”
Euthanasia is often confused with physician-assisted suicide. Euthanasia is when one person does something that directly kills another. For example, a doctor gives a lethal injection to a patient. In assisted suicide, a non-suicidal person knowingly and intentionally provides the means or acts in some way to help a suicidal person kill himself or herself. For example, a doctor writes a prescription for poison, or someone hooks up a face mask and tubing to a canister of carbon monoxide and then instructs the suicidal person on how to push a lever so that she'll be gassed to death. For all practical purposes, any distinction between euthanasia and assisted suicide has been abandoned today.
Euthanasia is defined as the act of killing someone who is terminally ill or those who are seriously injured in a reasonably painless way for reasons of compassion (Diaconescu). There are two types of administering euthanasia, which are Active and Passive euthanasia. Active euthanasia is when the medical professionals or another person intentionally does something that causes the patient to die. An example of active euthanasia is killing a patient using lethal injection. Passive euthanasia is when the patient dies because the medical professionals don't do or stops doing something to extend the patient’s life or when they stop doing something that is keeping the patient alive. An example of passive euthanasia are turning off life support machines, disconnecting fe...
Euthanasia is the act of intentionally ending a life to relieve pain and suffering. The House of Lords Select Committee on Medical Ethics of England defines euthanasia as a deliberate intervention undertaken with the intention of ending a life, to relieve suffering(Harris, NM. 2001)., in the Netherlands euthanasia is defined as the termination of life by a doctor at the request of a patient(BBC,2011).
The word “euthanasia” comes from the Ancient Greek “eu” - good and “thanatos” - death. Plato argued that suicide was against the will of the gods, and was therefore wrong. He does say that patients that are unable to live normally should be denied treatment. Aristotle believed that suicide is wrong because the law forbids it. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, was against active euthanasia. In his famous “Hippocratic oath”, a line forbids giving a “deadly drug” [9][11].
Any discussion that pertains to the topic of euthanasia must first include a clear definition of the key terms and issues. With this in mind, it should be noted that euthanasia includes both what has been called physician-assisted "suicide" and voluntary active euthanasia. Physician-assisted suicide involves providing lethal medication(s) available to the patient to be used at a time of the patient’s own choosing (Boudreau, p.2, 2014). Indifferently, voluntary active euthanasia involves the physician taking an active role in carrying out the patient’s request, and usually involves intravenous delivery of a lethal substance. Physician-assisted suicide is felt to be easier psychologically for the physician and patient than euthanasia because
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.
Also known as Physician Assisted Suicide, euthanasia generally involves a patient who is terminally ill and wishes to die. They seek the help of a doctor to fulfill this wish. The dictionary definition of euthanasia is “the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals (such as persons or domestic animals) in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy.” Euthanasia is a Greek word that means “good death” (Santosh). It is legal in the Netherlands, Switzerland, and in Belgium (Anif). Some states in the United States do not view euthanasia as a crime under the legal code but it is not openly viewed as legal either. There are many forms of euthanasia which include active, passive, involuntary and voluntary. Voluntary euthanasia is when a competent person makes a voluntary request to be helped to die. Involuntary is when they do not give consent or they do not have knowledge of it. Active euthanasia is ending a person’s life by the use of drugs whether it is by oneself or with the help of a doctor. Lastly, passive euthanasia is when necessary or ordinary action that maintains life is withheld. This can be done by discontinuing feeding tubes and withholding water, drugs or medical care (Preston).
Euthanasia comes from Greek prefix “eu” meaning good or easy, and suffix “thanatos” meaning death (123helpme.com). In ancient Greece, suicides and assisted suicides were practiced regularly. In some situations, it was considered honorable to commit suicide or have a family member assist in one’s death (Walker). On the other hand, Socrates was sentenced to suicide as punishment for “corrupting the city’s youth with his teachings” (Yount). As time went on, suicide and assisted suicide became decreasingly accepted in society. As Christianity was introduced into Western civilization, a value was placed on the human life that was not there before. It was said that only God had the right to take the gift of life away from individuals. By the 19th century, most countries had laws against suicide, punishing the family by taking property, livestock, etc. However, those laws were lifted because they were found insensitive to the grieving families. Today in the United States, there are no laws against committing suicide or attempting suicide, however assisted suicide and eut...
Euthanasia originated from the Greek word for “good death.” It is the act of practice of ending the lifespan of a person either by lethal injection or the suspension of medical treatment. Because of this, many view euthanasia as simply bringing relief by alleviating pain and suffering.
The word Euthanasia originated from the Greek language: eu means "good" and thanatos means "death". Euthanasia (Greek, "good death") is the practice of killing a person or animal, in a painless or minimally painful way, for merciful reasons, usually to end their suffering. However, some people define euthanasia to include both voluntary and involuntary termination of life (Humphy 12). Like so many moral/ethical/religious terms, "euthanasia" has many meanings. Euthanasia, in the strict sense, involves actively causing death. This is, in some cases, legal like in the Netherlands, but in few other countries. Euthanasia, in a wider sense, includes assisting someone to commit suicide, in particular physician-assisted suicide (PAS). Allowing death -- e.g. by not providing life support or vital medication-- is not considered euthanasia if it is the patient's wish (Robinson). It is sometimes called passive euthanasia in cases where the patient is unable to make decisions about treatment. “Living Wills” and “Do Not Resuscitate” orders are legal instruments that make a patient's treatment decisions known ahead of time; allowing a patient to die based on such decisions is never considered euthanasia. Terminal sedation is a combination of medically inducing a deep sleep and stopping other treatment, with the exception of medication for symptom control (such as analgesia). It is considered to be euthanasia by some, but under current law and medical practice it is considered a form of palliative care (Humphry 14). Advocates of euthanasia generally insist that euthanasia should be voluntary, requiring informed consent, and that it should only be used in cases of terminal illness that cause unbearable suffering, or an eventual, complete loss of awareness. Its opponents challenge it on several ethical grounds, including a slippery slope argument that it is the first step towards compulsory euthanasia (Leon 22).
A definition of euthanasia is, “a painless killing, especially to end a painful and incurable disease; mercy killing (World Book, p. 733). This intentional termination of life by another is at the request of the person who dies, but like so many other religious, social and political terms, euthanasia has many meanings. Passive euthanasia is defined as, the hastening of death of a person by withdrawing some type of support and letting nature take its course, examples of this are, removing life support systems, stopping medical procedures, stopping food and water, not delivering CPR and letting the patient’s heart stop. The most common form of passive euthanasia is to give a person large doses of morphine to control pain, despite the likely hood that the pain killer would suppress respiration, thus causing death earlier than normal, passive euthanasia is usually used on patients who are terminally ill, suffering greatly, or in a persistent vegetative state (Robinson, p. 1).
Euthanasia, as defined by the Encarta Encyclopedia, is the “practice of mercifully ending a person’s life in order to release the person from incurable disease, intolerable suffering, or undignified death” (Encarta, 2004). Euthanasia is a Greek word, which means “good death.” As humans, we understand death is something we cannot avoid but having some control over death is empowering and reassuring to us. If someone is suffering from a terminal illness, intolerable pain, or in a long-term coma, euthanasia is an acceptable option for someone to end his or her life. With the consent of their doctor(s) these people should be able to have the law on their side supporting their decisions.
Brock, Dan W. "Voluntary Active Euthanasia." The Moral Life: An Introductory Reader in Ethics and Literature. By Louis P. Pojman and Lewis Vaughn. 4th ed. New York: Oxford UP, 2011. 823-44. Print.
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.