Euthanasia is the practice of ending the life of a person or being because they are perceived as living an intolerable life, in a painless or minimally painful way either by lethal injection, drug overdose, or by the withdrawal of life support. Euthanasia is a controversial issue because of conflicting religious and humanist views.
Voluntary euthanasia occurs with the fully informed request of a decision from a competent adult patient or that of their surrogate.
Nonvoluntary euthanasia occurs without the fully informed consent and fully informed request of a decision-competent adult patient or that of their surrogate.
Involuntary euthanasia occurs over the objection of a patient or their surrogate. An example of this might be if a patient with decisional capacity is told they will be euthanized.
The Slippery Slope
Many people worry that if voluntary euthanasia were to become legal, it would not be long before involuntary euthanasia would start to happen.
This is called the Slippery Slope argument. In general form it says that if we allow something relatively harmless today, we may start a trend that results in something currently unthinkable becoming accepted.
Those who oppose this argument say that properly drafted legislation can draw a firm barrier across the slippery slope.
The Print media reports SMH
November, 2002 article called Endgame in Australia gives a summary of legislation across Australia with regard to Euthanasia, in A further article titled The Unbearable Pain of Being reported in The Age May 31 2002 gives opinion with regard to slippery slope argument, with the Dutch experience where Euthanasia can be performed with the authority of two separate psychiatrist's reports.
The Catholic Church does not approve of any methods to purposely kill someone even the terminally ill. Catholicism teaches that people should have food and water until the die naturally.
When a person is suffering from a terminal illness or other end of life medical conditions, I believe palliative care professionals can assist these persons in alleviating their suffering without the need for the persons electing to consider any form of euthanasia.
When the power to take life is taken into human hands, we can use it for evil purposes or misuse it. Someone might call a person with a disability not fit to live and choose to kill them. In addition, the elderly might not want to be a burden on their family and kill themselves. Euthanasia is a very dangerous slippery slope.
Accepting euthanasia weakens society's respect for life.
Another reason a patient may opt to euthanasia is to die with dignity. The patient, fully aware of the state he or she is in, should be able choose to die in all their senses as opposed to through natural course. A patient with an enlarged brain tumor can choose to die respectively, instead of attempting a risky surgery that could leave the patient in a worse condition then before the operation, possibly brain-dead. Or a patient with early signs of Dementia or Alzheimer’s disease may wish to be granted euthanization before their disease progresses and causes detrimental loss of sentimental memories. Ultimately it should be the patient’s choice to undergo a risky surgery or bite the bullet, and laws prohibiting euthanasia should not limit the patient’s options.
Euthanasia is the fact of ending somebody’s life when assisting him to die peacefully without pain. In most cases, it is a process that leads to end the suffering of human beings due to disease or illness. A person other than the patient is responsible for the act of euthanasia; for example a medical provider who gives the patient the shot that must kill him. When people sign a consent form to have euthanasia, it is considered voluntary, involuntary euthanasia is when they refuse. When people are not alert and oriented they are not allowed to sign any consent including the consent to euthanasia. When euthanasia is practiced in such situation, it is a non-voluntary euthanasia. In sum, people who practice voluntary euthanasia in honoring other
Euthanasia, according to Munson , refers to the act of ending life in order to relieve pain and suffering for the patient by means of lethal injections. Euthanasia gives terminally ill patients the opportunity to end their suffering and pain when the illness is incurable. There are also different types of euthanasia called involuntary, voluntary, and non-voluntary euthanasia. Voluntary euthanasia is the focus in this analysis, meaning that all patients involved are found to be completely competent and able to make a decision to end their life.
The right to assisted suicide is a significant topic that concerns people all over the United States. The debates go back and forth about whether a dying patient has the right to die with the assistance of a physician. Some are against it because of religious and moral reasons. Others are for it because of their compassion and respect for the dying. Physicians are also divided on the issue. They differ where they place the line that separates relief from dying--and killing. For many the main concern with assisted suicide lies with the competence of the terminally ill. Many terminally ill patients who are in the final stages of their lives have requested doctors to aid them in exercising active euthanasia. It is sad to realize that these people are in great agony and that to them the only hope of bringing that agony to a halt is through assisted suicide.When people see the word euthanasia, they see the meaning of the word in two different lights. Euthanasia for some carries a negative connotation; it is the same as murder. For others, however, euthanasia is the act of putting someone to death painlessly, or allowing a person suffering from an incurable and painful disease or condition to die by withholding extreme medical measures. But after studying both sides of the issue, a compassionate individual must conclude that competent terminal patients should be given the right to assisted suicide in order to end their suffering, reduce the damaging financial effects of hospital care on their families, and preserve the individual right of people to determine their own fate.
As stated in KWL Ethical Thinking: “It is important to distinguish between voluntary euthanasia – as when a person who is mentally competent requests that his or her life be ended – and involuntary euthanasia – as when others make the decision to intentionally end the life of a
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
Philosophers like Peter Singer and Margaret Battin have dedicated their personal and professional time to evaluating the choice to which a person has the right to continue to live or to die. In order to do this, we first have to examine what exactly euthanasia is. The practice of euthanasia can be classified in two different ways. First, euthanasia can be either active or passive. Active euthanasia involves the direct interruption of ongoing daily functioning that otherwise would be adequate to maintain life. Passive euthanasia involves the withholding or withdrawing of treatment that might support ongoing daily functions; without drugs or treatment the body would continue its process of shutting down. In the case of passive euthanasia, the argument can be made that the treatment is actually withholding the natural process of death. Secondly, euthanasia can be divided into three categories based on a level of consciousness: involuntary (death against ones wishes), voluntary (death based on expressed wishes), and non-voluntary (incapable of consent or competent decision-making).
In review, euthanasia is performed when the pain is too much for the patient. It is, overall, the patient’s life—their right and their choice. Everyone deserves to die compassionately, knowing that they will slip away painlessly. Everyone deserves to have a choice, especially when it comes to the manner of their death. If euthanasia is not legalized, many people will debilitating illnesses may take their lives in much more horrific ways. If they want the suffering to end badly enough, it is simply done one way or
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.
The debate on whether voluntary euthanasia should be legalized has been a controversial topic. Euthanasia is defined as ‘a deliberate intervention undertaken with the express intention of ending a life, to relieve intractable suffering’ [1]. Voluntary euthanasia refers to the patients who understand the terms in the consent and sign up under consciousness, while involuntary euthanasia is performed against patient's wishes and some people may regard it as a murder [1].
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 is one of the most recent and controversial debates today (Brogden, 2001). As per the Canadian Medical Association, euthanasia refers to the process of purposely and intentionally performing an act that is overtly anticipated to end the person’s life (CMA, 1998)
Thesis Statement: While euthanasia ends the suffering of a terminally ill patient, it may be ill-advised to use it on a patient who is not terminally ill despite their reasons or ailments.
Sanders, K., & Chaloner, C. (2007). Voluntary euthanasia: ethical concepts and definitions . Nursing Standard, 21, 41-44.
One reason why the solution to have the patient consent to euthansia and have legal documentation of the consent is the patient would have be evaluated to show thier complete understanding of thier decision and know the consequences of that decision, which if the evaluation showed no understanding the assistance would not occur. The family would also be able to express thier feelings to the patient about the decision. This would help further asses the pati...