Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Moral and ethical issues surrounding euthanasia
Euthanasia for terminally ill
Strengths and weakness of passive euthanasia
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Moral and ethical issues surrounding euthanasia
Euthanasia has been a medical ethic issue for many years, and many factors make up the cause of this issue, including religion. Euthanasia is the painless way of ending one’s life, also known as “mercy-killing”, or “good death” when translated from the Greek language. There are many types of euthanasias: passive, active, voluntary, and involuntary euthanasia. There can be many different points of views on each different type of euthanasia, or there can be just one opinion on the whole subject; and a major opinion that can affect an individual’s decision is their religion’s beliefs. Though some states such as Oregon, Washington, and Vermont, allow euthanasia. This is by the Death with Dignity Act; whereas some individuals can ask for rapid death if they are terminally ill. Now this Act has eliminated every other factor that was interfering in the “Right to Euthanasia” decision, religion still stays as a factor. Individuals should have the right to euthanasia (and assisted suicide); one’s religious belief should not hold back their decision, and have them suffer until natural death. Euthanasia is not a painful way of dying, there are types that are just like taking life support off or giving poison, that can kill soothingly. It is a quick and peaceful way to die during a terminally illness situation. Voluntary, involuntary, passive, and, active euthanasia, are the four types of euthanasia. Voluntary euthanasia is when the patient wants to go through euthanasia and has given consent for euthanasia. Whereas involuntary euthanasia is when the patient did not choose it for themselves, but someone else made the decision for euthanasia to be performed. Passive euthanasia is when the medical officials or doctors order the medicatio... ... middle of paper ... ...thanasia (redirected from Mercy-killing)." TheFreeDictionary.com. Farlex, 2013. Web. 03 Dec. 2013. .- "Judaism, Euthanasia and Suicide." BBC News. BBC, 21 July 2009. Web. 17 Dec. 2013. . Nordqvist, Christian. "What Is Euthanasia (assisted Suicide)? What Is The Definition Of Assisted Suicide Or Euthanasia?" Medical News Today. MediLexicon International, 19 Mar. 2010. Web. 03 Dec. 2013. . "Reasons for Euthanasia." Euthanasia.com. Euthanasia.com, 2013. Web. 03 Dec. 2013. . "Religion and Spirituality." Death with Dignity National Center. Drupal, 2012. Web. 03 Dec. 2013. .
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).
Active Euthanasia: Physician Assisted Suicide is Wrong? The issue at hand is whether physician-assisted suicide should be legalized for patients who are terminally ill and/or enduring prolonged suffering. In this debate, the choice of terms is central. The most common term, euthanasia, comes from the Greek word meaning "good death."
Societies frequently reject the use of euthanasia because of the way in which it violates ethics. This is a major concern in the field of religion; along with other religions and religious leaders, Willem Velema of the Orthodox Protestant Church was “fiercely opposed” to the idea of euthanizing (Boer). From a religious standpoint, this procedure is wrong because patients and their families can act as God by determining time of death. Religion teaches that God keeps His children on the earth for a reason. After all, God puts certain obstacles in one’s life in order to make them stronger; resorting to death is a sign of weakness. Euthanasia is also opposed by many because of the way people take advantage of it. In Belgium, where Euthanization is legal, the number of medically induced deaths “has been going up” tremendously (Boer). In fact, “it has increased by an average of 15% a year” since 2006 (Boer). As numbers increase, citizens become desensitized to the idea, therefore, viewing it as a viable option in the face of pain.
"Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide: All Sides." [On-Line]. Available: http://www.relgious tolerance.org/euthanas.htm #beli Downloaded: November 6, 1997
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...
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
Oxford English Dictionary. "Euthanasia." Def. 3. Oxford English Dictionary. Sept. 2011. Web. 13 Nov. 2011. .
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.
“Euthanasia is defined as a deliberate act undertaken by one person with the intention of ending life of another person to relieve that person's suffering and where the act is the cause of death.”(Gupta, Bhatnagar and Mishra) Some define it as mercy killing. Euthanasia may be voluntary, non voluntary and involuntary. When terminally ill patient consented to end his or her life, it is called voluntary euthanasia. Non voluntary euthanasia occurs when the suffering person never consented nor requested to end a life. These patients are incompetent to decide because they are either minor, in a comatose stage or have mental conditions. Involuntary euthanasia is conducted when it is against the will of the patient (Gupta, Bhatnagar, Mishra). Euthanasia can be either passive or active. Passive euthanasia means life-sustaining treatments are withheld and nothing is done to keep the patient alive. Active euthanasia occurs when a physician do something by giving drugs or substances that ends a patient’s life. (Medical News Today)
Over the course of this paper, I will give a brief history, background, and address many of the arguments that are opposed to and for euthanasia. These arguments include causation, omission, legal issues, the physicians involved, the slippery slope that might potentially be created, autonomy rights, and Christianity.
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”.
New York: New York University Press, 2012. Print. The. Kuhse, Helga. A. “Euthanasia.” A Companion to Ethics.
Focus on the Family Issue Analysts. “Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide.” Focus on the Family. 2008. Focus on the Family. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.
Euthanasia had become a big debate in our society and the world. Many people ask, what is Euthanasia? “Euthanasia is a deliberate intervention or omission with the express intention of hastening or ending and individual’s life, to relieve intractable pain or suffering” (Sanders & Chaloner, 2007, p. 41). Thus the meaning of euthanasia is having the right to die if you are terminally ill, suffering and/or suffering a great amount of pain. Many people do not agree with the use of euthanasia, but if humans can put down animals why cannot we use euthanasia on humans? Back in ancient Greek and Roman times, the word euthanasia meant “good death”. Also it was allowed because many people did not live to long ages. When the times began to change so did people’s views on euthanasia, due to the new religion of Judeo-Christian Belief. Because life and death were giving to us by God, euthanasia goes against his wishes. If they practice in the act of euthanasia because of their beliefs they would be committing a sin and end up going to hell. (Yip,2009,p.1)
In active euthanasia a person deliberately causes the patient to die where as in passive euthanasia they don’t really take the patient’s life they just let them die.