Define Euthanasia and assisted suicide Essay Example For Students

Define Euthanasia and assisted suicide Essay Abstract This paper will define Euthanasia and assisted suicide. Euthanasia is often confused with and associated with assisted suicide, definitions of the two are required. Two perspectives shall be presented in this paper. The first perspective will favor euthanasia or the right to die, the second perspective will favor antieuthanasia, or the right to live. Each perspective shall endeavor to clarify the legal, moral and ethical ramifications or aspects of euthanasia. Thesis Statement Euthanasia, also mercy killing, is the practice of ending a life so as to release an individual from an incurable disease or intolerable suffering. Euthanasia is a merciful means to and end of long-term suffering. Euthanasia is a relatively new dilemma for the United States and has gained a bad reputation from negative media hype surrounding assisted suicides. Euthanasia has a purpose and should be evaluated as humanely filling a void created by our sometimes inhumane modern society. Antithesis Statement Euthanasia is nothing less than cold-blooded killing. Euthanasia cheapens life, even more so than the very divisive issue of abortion. Euthanasia is morally and ethically wrong and should be banned in these United States. Modern edicine has evolved by leaps and bounds recently, euthanasia resets these medical advances back by years and reduces todays Medical Doctors to administrators of death. Euthanasia defined The term Euthanasia is used generally to refer to an easy or painless death. Voluntary euthanasia involves a request by the dying patient or that persons legal representative. Passive or negative euthanasia involves not doing something to prevent deaththat is, allowing someone to die; active or positive euthanasia involves taking deliberate action to cause a death. Euthanasia is often mistaken or associated with for assisted suicide, a istant cousin of euthanasia, in which a person wishes to commit suicide but feels unable to perform the act alone because of a physical disability or lack of knowledge about the most effective means. An individual who assists a suicide victim in accomplishing that goal may or may not be held responsible for the death, depending on local laws. There is a distinct difference between euthanasia and assisted suicide. This paper targets euthanasia; pros and cons, not assisted suicide. Thesis Argument That Euthanasia Should Be Accepted Without doubt, modern dying has become fearsome. Doctors now possess he technologies and the skills to forestall natural death almost indefinitely. All too often, the terminally ill suffer needless pain and are kept alive without real hope, as families hold a harrowing deathwatch. In ancient Greece and Rome it was permissible in some situations to help others die. For example, the Greek writer Plutarch mentioned that in Sparta, infanticide was practiced on children who lacked health and vigor. Both Socrates and Plato sanctioned forms of euthanasia in certain cases. Voluntary euthanasia for the elderly was an approved custom in several ancient societies . Euthanasia has been accepted both legally and morally in various forms in many societies . There is no more profoundly personal decision, nor one which is closer to the heart of personal liberty, than the choice which a terminally ill person makes to end his or her suffering , U. S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein wrote (R-1). Organizations supporting the legalization of voluntary euthanasia were established in Great Britain in 1935 and in the United States in 1938. They have gained some public support, but so far they have been unable to achieve their goal in either nation. In the last few ecades, Western laws against passive and voluntary euthanasia have slowly been eased (1). The proeuthanasia, or right to die, movement has received considerable encouragement by the passage of laws in 40 states by 1990, which allow legally competent individuals to make living wills. These wills empower and instruct doctors to withhold life-support systems if the individuals become terminally ill . Euthanasia continues to occur in all societies, including those in which it is held to be immoral and illegal. Night Chapter 4(Poem) and Chaptr 8(Eulogy) EssaySlightly more than half of the physicians surveyed in Washington State would approve the legalization of physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia under certain circumstances. A total of 938 physicians completed questionnaires bout their attitudes toward euthanasia and assisted suicide. Physician- assisted suicide was described as prescribing medication and providing counseling to patients on overdosing to end their own lives. Euthanasia was defined as administering an overdose of medication at an ill patients request. Forty-two percent of physicians indicated that they found euthanasia ethically acceptable under some circumstances. Fifty-four percent indicated that they believed euthanasia should be legal under certain circumstances . Today, patients are entitled to opt for passive euthanasia; that is, to make free and informed choices to refuse life support. The controversy over active euthanasia, however, is likely to remain intense because of opposition from religious groups and many members of the medical profession . The medical profession has generally been caught in the middle of the social controversies that rage over euthanasia. Government and religious groups as well as the medical profession itself agree that doctors are not required to use extraordinary means to prolong the life of the terminally ill . The Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliment developed and approved the following substantive and procedural guidelines, or points for Dutch hysicians to consider when practicing or administering Euthanasia: Substantive Guidelines (a) Euthanasia must be voluntary; the patients request must be seriously considered and enduring. b) The patient must have adequate information about his or her medical condition, the prognosis, and alternative methods of treatment (though it is not required that the patient be terminally ill). (c) The patients suffering must be intolerable, in the patients view, and must also be irreversible. (d) There must be no reasonable alternatives for relieving the patients suffering that are acceptable to the patient.