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Legal and ethical issues surrounding euthanasia
Pros and cons of euthanasia
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Death is something almost everyone fears, but the people that aren’t afraid are the ones suffering from terminal disease and other life-threatening illness. Euthanasia and physician assisted suicide are very serious topics in the medical community, as supporters to legalization argue that it’s the right of the person to live or die, while on the other side opponents argue legalizing it me1ans that doctors will have the ability to kill patients and that the government approves it. Euthanasia is legal in multiple countries including Netherlands, Switzerland, and Canada. Physician assisted suicide is legal in a lot of countries including; Germany, Japan, and Switzerland. Euthanasia is widely conversed in the world and has been since it was first …show more content…
Hospitals try to keep their rooms filled to maximize profits and the people’s families that must deal with the bills usually are not able to pay it off. If someone is going to die and wants euthanasia, that gives the doctor more time to work on patients that can be saved. Many times, people that can be saved are put on waiting lists because of the terminally ill. Facilitation of the equipment used almost always immediately is put on to the person with an illness that can really make the hospital …show more content…
The legalization of euthanasia and physician assisted suicide is an abomination to the government’s duty to protect its citizens. The government is supposed to put laws to protect people and making a law legal for physician assisted suicide is against the peaceful sanctity of life and shows the government inadvertently supports killing. Euthanasia is murder or manslaughter, by the definition of law, even if the patient specifically asked for them to be killed.
Death should not be taken lightly, even though euthanasia sends a message that life is not worth living. People are easily influenced and if a law is changed on euthanasia, then people will change their opinion on life itself. Especially the youth with the increasingly high suicide rates in the past decade, and the easy access to a variety of drugs and weapons.
Doctors become very powerful, when they can perform euthanasia on patients. In the Netherlands, there are a reported 4,000 cases of involuntary euthanasia, since 2012. This is disheartening because it is legal in this country. There are 900 cases a year reportedly in the United
The Hippocratic Oath states that “I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel”. Euthanasia is where someone intentionally kills a person whose life is felt not to be worth living. It is definitely a controversial topic with many opinions on whether or not it should be legalized.
Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide has been a hot topic of debate for quite some time now. Some believe it to be immoral, while others see nothing wrong with it what so ever. Regardless what anyone believes, euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide should become legal for physicians and patients. Death is a personal situation in life. By government not allowing euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide they are interfering and violating patient’s personal freedom and human rights! Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide have the power to save the lives of family members and other ill patients. Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide should become legal however, there should be strict rules and guidelines to follow and carry out by both the patient and physician. If suicide isn’t a crime why should euthanasia and assisted suicide? Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide should be legal and the government should not be permitted to interfere with death.
I picked voluntary euthanasia as my written assignment topic this week because while reading through it, my mother’s comment of that she wants to just pass away quickly, rather suffering slowly and be a burden to everyone around here a long time ago came to my mind. She made that comment after visiting someone dying from cancer, so I understand why she made that remark. The reasons cited for voluntary euthanasia is to end the suffering and stop being a burden to everyone around you and is asking for health professionals to assist in ending your life (Young, 2014). Not many countries as we learned has legalized euthanasia, but a few like the Netherlands has set 5 very strict conditions for asking for voluntary euthanasia which are: “suffering
There are places where patients receive Euthanasia, and although the people in the vegetative state cannot see, the peace is something that you don’t need to see to feel it. Also, Euthanasia will save money to the family, as reported by The New York State Department of Health, “Under any new system of health care delivery, as at present, it will be far less costly to give a lethal injection than to care for a patient throughout the dying process." Besides, there is no reason to keep a person alive if there is not a possibility of recover it would only affect the economy. As stated by the Medical Billing Advocates of America, “as many people have seen, the final cost associated with life support can be an enormous burden once that loved one has passed away.” Contrasting the cost of Euthanasia with the cost of keeping someone alive, the results show a considerable difference of spend that if possible should be avoided. Nevertheless, there are cases where it is worthy to spend all this money, for example, if there is hope of a recovery, the family will never consider any amount of money too much for a second chance in their relative
In today’s modern society the use of euthanasia and assisted suicide is a hot button topic. Due to the argumentative nature of this issue many philosophers have created their own ideas on how euthanasia and assisted suicide benefit or harm society. These philosophers such as Brock and Callahan differ in their arguments about euthanasia and assisted suicide. Like almost all the heavily opinionated topics in society there should be limits to the use thus my consensus regarding euthanasia and assisted suicide is that it should be legalized to a certain extent.
Should euthanasia be allowed or not? It has become a very controversial issue nowadays. Velleman and Hooker have different perspectives on euthanasia, and whether there should be laws permitting voluntary and non-voluntary euthanasia. Although there are well-reasoned arguments on both sides, I would strongly agree with Hooker's argument that there should be a law permitting voluntary euthanasia when it is for the wellbeing of the person and that each individual should be able to make their own decision.
A major problem of the legalization of euthanasia is that doctors are taking advantage of their power. These doctors are performing euthanasia for many reasons just to make their own lives easier. “When these doctors are brought to trial for these acts, they are rarely found guilty. Their excuse is that they are acting out of higher necessity for the hospital system, which is an accepted excuse in the courts” (Fenigsen). Involuntary euthanasia is another problem that is coming up often. According to Diane Gianelli from the American Medical News, 2,000 physicians claim to administer pain medications to kill their patients. This shows that these physicians are either incredibly unskilled at providing the appropriate dosage of pain medications, or they are purposely ending their patients lives without their consent. Euthanasia is also being used as an excuse for the doctors’ mistakes. “...
Euthanasia is an unnatural way to die. It is assisted suicide. ¨Shouldn’t it be called murder?¨ No because it’s the person’s way to decide if they want to die, but doctors should have regulations. They shouldn’t be euthanized if they are just depressed. They should use it if it is an incurable disease and the person is in a lot of pain and suffering. To be honest, it is illegal for a reason. If it was legal in all 50 states there would be alot of euthanizations in the united states. Its unnatural because doctors prescribe medicine for you to die. And instead of living
“The doctor’s duty is to kill the pain, not the patient” (“Top 6 Reasons Physician-Assisted Suicide Should Not Be Legal”). The health department is seeking an easy way out instead of finding ways to cure the patient. A patient should be given help. That is the reason they go to a doctor, to get help. They do not go to a doctor’s office expecting to be killed. They go expecting help for a chance of survival. People fought for euthanasia to be legalized and used as a last resort and they are getting the opposite. It is cheaper for patient to undergo assisted suicide than for a treatment. A treatment that could take a long time or a short period of time. People should not be killed because it is an easier way out. It is inhumane to do that, everyone’s lives
Euthanasia is debated globally about whether or not it should be illegal or become legalized. Some will say that it is wrong, that it is taking the life of a human being; however, others will say that it is just taking the life of a human who is already terminally ill, and suffering. Euthanasia is legal in the Netherlands, Belgium, Columbia, and Luxemburg. Assisted suicide; which is another form of euthanasia is legal in Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Canada, and in some parts of the U.S: Washington, Oregon, Vermont, Montana, and California. Despite many beliefs of euthanasia being morally wrong, it provides terminally ill patients an alternative to the painful suffering they are to experience before their death.
Doctors prefer to never have to euthanize a patient. It is a contradiction of everything they have been taught for a doctor to euthanize someone, because a doctor’s job is to do everything in their power to keep the patient alive, not assist them in suicide. The majority of doctors who specialize in palliative care, a field focused on quality of life for patients with severe and terminal illnesses, think legalizing assisted suicide is very unnecessary. This is due to the fact that if patients do not kill themselves, they will end up dying on a ventilator in the hospital under the best possible care available, with people around them trying to keep them as comfortable as possible. Legalized euthanasia everywhere has been compared to going down a slippery slope. Officials believe that it could be done over excessively and the fear of assisted suicide numbers rising greatly is a great fear. This is why euthanasia is such a controversial subject worldwide. But, even though it is a very controversial subject, euthanasia is humane. Every doctor also has a say in whether or not they choose to euthanize a patient or not, leaving only the doctors who are willing to do this type of practice, for euthanizing patients. Medicine and drugs prescribed by a doctor for pain or suffering can not always help a person to the extent they desire, even with the help of doctors
Our values, opinions and beliefs depend on what culture, religion and the society we come from. People who are against view euthanasia as murder and that we must respect the value of life. Those who are in favor of euthanasia believe that doing such act eliminates the patient’s pain and suffering. Also, the right to die allows the person to die with dignity. Euthanasia may involve taking a human’s life, but not all forms of killing are wrong nor consider as murder. It depends on the underlying reasons and intentions. If you value a person’s life and the cause of death is for the patient’s benefit and not one’s personal interest, then euthanasia is permissible.
In order to provide a framework for my thesis statement on the morality of euthanasia, it is first necessary to define what euthanasia is and the different types of euthanasia. The term Euthanasia originates from the Greek term “eu”, meaning happy or good and “thanatos”, which means death, so the literal definition of the word Euthanasia can be translated to mean “good or happy death”.
This also helps it’s free up medical funds to help other people. In other cases, it could be a freedom of choice if the patient wants to end their life without going through anymore suffering. A lot of argument is over whether Euthanasia devalues life or if it is against human morals to take another life. While a person's decisions do play a role in this, most of the time it will be a physician's choice to see if the patient should live or not.
Lastly, I support the idea of legalizing euthanasia because the patients own their bodies, and they can do anything with it. Even though the doctor is the one who put the patient to death in a process of euthanasia, the patient is the one who makes the decision to be “killed”, and therefore, euthanasia is a type of physician-assisted suicide, which is not any of other people business.