euthanasia

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Recommended: Ethical and moral issues with euthanasia

What I learned is euthanasia can be defined as mercy killing. Mercy killing is when a patient is killed in a painless manner because they chose it or because it is chosen for them because they are incurable or just simply refused to be cured. There are two types of Euthanasia—passive euthanasia and active euthanasia. Passive euthanasia is when a patient does not get or refuses the treatment they need in order to stay alive. Active euthanasia is when a doctor or a nurse supplies medication to patient that will kill them. Euthanasia is a widely spread argument. Some believe it should be legal and some believe it should not be legal. There are clear pros and cons to the situation and then there are aspects that factor in and make the argument blurry; for instance, religion. However, I am going to begin by listing the pros I learned about euthanasia. Euthanasia comes from the Greek language and means good death, which is just another term for mercy killing. Some people believe a pro to euthanasia is it enables a person to die with dignity. The pain and loss caused by terminal illnesses causes people to feel less dignified. Therefore, not allowing euthanasia can be described as the act of refusing dignity to individuals who are dying. It is also argued that terminally ill patients who desire and are allowed euthanasia do not physically harm others in the process of their death. Terminal illnesses sometimes cause a plentiful amount of suffering. The people that are victims to these terminal illnesses sometimes just want to end the suffering. On the other hand, some people are denied medical insurance and in conclusion denied pain control or treatment and that is the reason more people want euthanasia to be legal. I also learned that the... ... middle of paper ... ... none of the recognized legal defenses to justify or excuse her behavior, instead relying on “her culture” as her defense. She was charged with 5 years probation. Also, the woman and her husband were able to patch things up and got back together. Even though this story is not specifically about euthanasia it is about the cultural diversity that is present in American society. Culture can also obviously play a huge role in the controversy of euthanasia, especially because some countries and/or states find that euthanasia is not illegal. What I learned from the websites for this assignment is that the main problem people have against euthanasia is who decides whether euthanasia is appropriate for each individual’s circumstance. Maybe the individual decides, maybe the doctor, maybe the family, or perhaps none of those people should be making the decision to end a life.

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