The Ethical Issue Of Euthanasia And Assisted Suicide

Euthanasia is the painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease or in an irreversible coma. Euthanasia can either take the form of passive or active assisted-suicide. Euthanasia is a hotly debated topic international that receives a lot of media attention when a story breaks about a personal story of someone suffering from an incurable and painful disease asks to be euthanized. Euthanasia can either take a passive or active form in that passive euthanasia is the act in which a life-support system or medication is withheld so the patient can die by natural means. This also means an ordinary human right such as nutrition or hydration cannot be with held to induce death.

¨ If I cannot give my consent to my own death, whose body is this? Who owns my life?- Sue Rodriguez. If one cannot choose when they die and how they go out, then are we really the owner of our life and body? Physician assisted suicide is the practice of providing a competent patient with a prescription for medication for the patient to use with the primary intention of ending his or her own life. When the patient is terminally ill and is in a lot of pain they should be able to end their own life instead of waiting for it to end itself.

Also euthanasia has two procedural classifications, passive and active. Passive euthanasia involves withdrawal of life-prolonging treatments, whereas active euthanasia as well-known as mercy killing involves the use of force or lethal substance are used to end a patient’s life. Active euthanasia include life-ending actions conducted by the patient or somebody else. In short: euthanasia involves killing the patient to eliminate the pain while end-of-life care involves eliminating the pain so that the patient can die painlessly, from natural causes. Euthanasia is very controversial in the sense, many argued that it is assisted suicide and could be a cover for outright murder.

Thus, according to these people, suicide is in principle morally permissible. For health care workers, the issue of the right to die is most prominent when a patient in their care is terminally ill, is in intense pain, and voluntarily chooses to end their life to escape prolonged suffering. In these cases, there are several theoretical options open to the health care worker. First, the worker can ignore the patient's request and care can continue as usual. Second, the worker can discontinue providing life-sustaining treatment to the patient, and thus allow him to die more quickly.

It has the minds of society wondering if death solves some of the most extreme medical problems. If a patient finds himself or herself terminally ill and in excruciating pain, they should have the option to partake in assisted suicide to end their misery. Some insights support Euthanasia and some reject the concept. This issue is important to society because people want the right to end their lives when facing terminal, or life threatening, illnesses. In my opinion, certain forms of euthanasia should be considered legal.

People also choose Euthanasia as a means to ending their life because they feel that can no longer live their lives the way the want to. Finally, people use Euthanasia to end their lives because they feel that only machines and medication are keeping them alive and that they have truly died inside. A careful and close analysis of this topic and a review of some quotes taken from a major motion picture on this subject will show that Euthanasia should be legalized, and implemented in our palliative care system today. The word Euthanasia can be a taboo in the medical care system today. Many medical practitioners dismiss euthanasia as an option to treatment and it is illegal in all 12 Canadian provinces.

If you found out that you were going to die from a progressive, painful, and debilitating disease, would you like to have the decision to end in your own life with dignity instead of anticipating for a slow, painful death? Justifying euthanasia in utilitarianism is a question of showing that allowing people to have a good death, at a time of their own choosing will make them happier than the pain from their illness, the loss of dignity and the distress of anticipating a slow, painful death. In the case of Brittany Maynard, she was diagnosed with brain cancer at the age of 29 and despite doctors’ attempts to stop the disease from spreading, the cancer returned with vengeance and she was given only six months to live. On her opinion piece for CNN titled "My Right to Death with Dignity at 29, Maynard

Physician Assisted Suicide is when a doctor provides a patient with informationor the means of assisting in their suicide. This could mean actions like writing a presciprtion for dangerous dosages of sleeping pills or providing access to carbon monoxide. These are just a few common examples of how physicans have helped assist in patients suicides throughout history and still to this day. Active Euthanasia can be explained as causing the death of a person through direct action, typically as a response to a request of suicide.. Involuntary Euthanasia is just the opposite.

Although physician assisted suicide may result in the fulfillment of another’s choice, be considered a compassionate mean to end suffering, or even be considered a right, I believe it is not morally acceptable. In the act of physician assisted suicide, a patient voluntarily requests his or her doctor to assist in providing the means needed for self killing. In most cases of physician assisted suicide, patients who request this type of assistance are terminally ill and mentally competent (i.e. have sufficient understanding of an individual’s own situation and purpose and consequences of any action). Those who have committed the action of physician assisted suicide or condone the act may believe that one has the right to end their own life, the right of autonomy (the right or condition of self governing), the right to a dignified death, believe that others have a duty to minimize suffering, or believe it (physician assisted suicide) to be a compassionate act, or a combination of these things.

The types of euthanasia are active, passive, voluntary, non-voluntary, involuntary, and indirect. Active Euthanasia is when a person directly and deliberately causes the patient’s death while passive euthanasia is when a person does not directly take the person’s life but allows death to happen. Voluntary euthanasia is when the patient requests to end his or her life while non voluntary euthanasia is when the person that will die does not make the decision but a appropriate person makes the decision on their behalf. Involuntary euthanasia is when a perso... ... middle of paper ... ...anasia and physician assisted suicide as morally wrong while proponents argue that it allows a person to die with dignity. My personal belief is that euthanasia and physician assisted suicide are almost always immoral.