Difference Between Euthanasia And Assisted Suicide

629 Words2 Pages

Are euthanasia and assisted suicide the same? No, euthanasia is the willing of the patient to be killed by a lethal injection, or any other means of killing a patient. Assisted suicide is where a patient asks the doctor to prescribe a lethal amount of drugs to someone. The difference is that Euthanasia can be taking someone off life support and assisted suicide is a prescribed lethal drug. Euthanasia is the most ethical way, out of the two, to put someone down. There are many ways of euthanizing someone. An example from Patients Rights Council is, “In this report, euthanasia is defined as intentionally, knowingly and directly acting to cause the death of another person (e.g., giving a lethal injection)” (Marker). There are more than just …show more content…

The Hippocratic Oath states, in simplest terms, that they cannot kill any patient. There is an exception for euthanasia and assisted suicide. In BBC News stated, “Euthanasia is against the law in the UK where it is illegal to help anyone kill themselves. Voluntary euthanasia or assisted suicide can lead to imprisonment of up to 14 years.” After a big debate and statistics they changed their law, some questions were was it morally right or ethically right. This is a more of a morally right thing to do, based off of the Hippocratic Oath. Their morals call euthanasia as “mercy killing” according to BBC News (qtd. in BBC). Mercy killing is killing someone so they don’t have to suffer. In conclusion euthanasia is. There are many reasons why they would do …show more content…

Terminally ill people can have their quality of life severely damaged by physical conditions such as incontinence, nausea and vomiting, breathlessness, paralysis and difficulty in swallowing. Psychological factors that cause people to think of euthanasia include depression, fearing loss of control or dignity, feeling a burden, or dislike of being dependent.(BBC)
People who are depressed, terminally ill, and anyway people are going to eventually commit suicide might as well do euthanasia so the police don’t have to get involved in a suicide case. This would benefit ethically but also make people’s lives easier. According to the National Library of Medicine and the National Health Institute, anyone needs a written consent before doing so. This is so family members aren’t doing it to harm someone or make sure they really want to go with it. Euthanasia is a more ethical way to put someone down than assisted suicide. Euthanasia is used as a death sentence in some places, why not the terminally ill. If someone wants to commit suicide might as well do it humanely. It is better than overdosing purposely. Choose wisely which one is legal and which one is

Open Document