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religious and ethical issues with euthanasia
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Euthanasia, the act of relieving the prolonged pain and suffering of terminally ill patients by inducing death, has been the subject of controversy for sometime. Dying with dignity, the kind of end we hope for ourselves as well as others, has in some ways become more difficult. With the advancements in medicine having leaped forward within the last 20 years, prolonging life by means of technology has become common place in the medical community. These life-sustaining advances in treatments have brought up moral issues of whether it is the right of an individual to suppress his or her own life-sustaining treatment if they so desire. Our society has become a youth-worshipping society. It is almost as if we have taken on old-age and death as just another disease that need to be conquered. The fact is, we all die sooner or later. Death is not our enemy. It is as much a part of living as being born. Some seventy percent of the deaths that occur here in the U.S. take place in a hospital or institution, and almost three-quarters of the people who die each year are over sixty-five.(Ogg 2) This figure has not always been the case though. Before immunizations of infectious childhood diseases, death at a young age was common. In 1915 the average life expectancy was 54.5 years. Today the average is about 75 years. Most adults who died were not really old by today’s standard. (Ogg 2) Death was part of living, commonly taking place at home with family and friends. Bastian 2 Today, as the figures show, death is highly institutionalized. This hiding away makes death easier for everyone to deny. The question of how to treat the dying surfaces. As one doctor stated, “there is a time to resist a disease and a time to recognize that future resistance would be inhumane, as well as futile.” (Kubler-Ross 8) Traditionally, doctors had the responsibility for deciding what should or should not be done for dying patients. Now, patients, their families, and patient representatives have a say in such decisions. Other factors such as religion come into effect as well. Jewish custom sanctions and perhaps even demands the withdrawal of artificial machines to prolong life, whether implanted or not.(Kubler-Ross 42) The Catholic Church is opposed to any form of euthanasia, but at the same time, the Church has for centuries sanctioned the withholding of useless treatments in hopeless case...
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...ience great Bastian 6 suffering, do you, or do you not think that competent doctors should be allowed by law to end the patients life through mercy killing, if the patient has made a formal request in writing?” The response was overwhelmingly pro-euthanasia. Three quarters of the people surveyed believed that the choice should be given to the patient. (Internet) Although euthanasia may seem like the right choice to a large consensus, there are still moral issues involved that keep euthanasia from being legalized. The arguments for euthanasia are based on the belief that euthanasia is a more humane route to take in cases of suffering, and also that a person should have the right to self determination. The arguments against euthanasia involve religion, and the fear that misuse may occur. By misuse, the idea is that old, poor, and powerless people would be selected more often than rich people. In either case, pro or con, it may be some time before euthanasia would be allowed in the U.S.. The world would seem a very different and cruel place to many if legalized. But from the information received from the polls, euthanasia may be only a short time away.
Word Count: 1363 Euthanasia
Anyone can be diagnosed with a terminal illness. It doesn’t matter how healthy you are, who you are, or what you do. Some terminal illnesses you can prevent by avoiding unhealthy habits, eating healthily, exercising regularly and keeping up with vaccinations. However some terminally ill people cannot be helped, their diseases cannot be cured and the only thing possible to help them, besides providing pain relieving medication, is to make them as comfortable as possible while enduring their condition. Many times the pharmaceuticals do not provide the desired pain escape, and cause patients to seek immediate relief in methods such as euthanasia. Euthanasia is the practice of deliberately ending a life in order to alleviate pain and suffering, but is deemed controversial because many various religions believe that their creators are the only ones that should decide when their life’s journey should reach its end. Euthanasia is performed by medical doctors or physicians and is the administration of a fatal dose of a suitable drug to the patient on his or her express request. Although the majority of American states oppose euthanasia, the practice would result in more good as opposed to harm. The patient who is receiving the euthanizing medication would be able to proactively choose their pursuit of happiness, alleviate themselves from all of the built up pain and suffering, relieve the burden they may feel they are upon their family, and die with dignity, which is the most ethical option for vegetative state and terminally ill patients. Euthanasia should remain an alternative to living a slow and painful life for those who are terminally ill, in a vegetative state or would like to end their life with dignity. In addition, t...
The issue at hand is whether physician-assisted suicide should be legalized for patients who are terminally ill and/or enduring prolonged suffering. In this debate, the choice of terms is central. The most common term, euthanasia, comes from the Greek words meaning "good death." Sidney Hook calls it "voluntary euthanasia," and Daniel C. Maguire calls it "death by choice," but John Leo calls it "cozy little homicides." Eileen Doyle points out the dangers of a popular term, "quality-of-life." The choice of terms may serve to conceal, or to enhance, the basic fact that euthanasia ends a human life. Different authors choose different terms, depending on which side of the issue they are defending.
Today, there is a large debate over the situation and consequences of euthanasia. Euthanasia is the act of ending a human’s life by lethal injection or the stoppage of medication, or medical treatment. It has been denied by most of today’s population and is illegal in the fifty states of the United States. Usually, those who undergo this treatment have a disease or an “unbearable” pain somewhere in the body or the mind. Since there are ways, other than ending life, to stop pain caused by illness or depression, euthanasia is immoral, a disgrace to humanity, according to the Hippocratic Oath, and should be illegal throughout the United States.
The purpose of Learning Leadership book is to answer a fundamental question: How do people learn leadership and how they can learn to become leaders? James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner have written this book as an exclusive guide for leaders to become the best leader by practicing the five fundamentals of becoming an exemplary leader. The book provides a framework to help people of all levels and backgrounds to develop their leadership style and become the best leaders they can be. Kouzes and Posner provide leaders a practical series of actions and some coaching tips for developing their leadership process and helping them to create a context to grow. The larger purpose of this book is to help leaders
...d if one studies the history of educational methods, one finds that every traditionalist theorist advocates hands-on methods where they lead to good results.” (Traditional Education is Progressive p.43)
In this essay, I will discuss whether euthanasia is morally permissible or not. Euthanasia is the intention of ending life due to inevitable pain and suffering. The word euthanasia comes from the Greek words “eu,” which means good, and “thanatosis, which means death. There are two types of euthanasia, active and passive. Active euthanasia is when medical professionals deliberately do something that causes the patient to die, such as giving lethal injections. Passive euthanasia is when a patient dies because the medical professionals do not do anything to keep them alive or they stop doing something that was keeping them alive. Some pros of euthanasia is the freedom to decide your destiny, ending the pain, and to die with dignity. Some cons
The topic of euthanasia and assisted suicide is very controversial. People who support euthanasia say that it is someone 's right to end their own life in the case of a terminal illness. Those in favor of this right consider the quality of life of the people suffering and say it is their life and, therefore, it is their decision. The people against euthanasia argue that the laws are in place to protect people from corrupt doctors. Some of the people who disagree with assisted suicide come from a religious background and say that it is against God’s plan to end one 's life. In between these two extreme beliefs there are some people who support assisted suicide to a certain degree and some people who agree on certain terms and not on others.
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.
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.
Humanistic Psychology also known as humanism was created in the 1950’s emerging from psychoanalysis. Humanistic psychology based itself more on each individual’s potential and importance of growth and self-actualization. The humanism perspective can be broken down into two different parts focusing on completely different points that in a way come back together and explain one another. Both perspectives can describe each individual as figuring out the best that one can become. Seeking fulfillment is a goal for many that humanism describes as being able to achieve it the individual agrees to search for it. Humanism teaches that anyone is free to become themselves if they choose that path.
The ethical debate regarding euthanasia dates back to ancient Greece and Rome. It was the Hippocratic School (c. 400B.C.) that eliminated the practice of euthanasia and assisted suicide from medical practice. Euthanasia in itself raises many ethical dilemmas – such as, is it ethical for a doctor to assist a terminally ill patient in ending his life? Under what circumstances, if any, is euthanasia considered ethically appropriate for a doctor? More so, euthanasia raises the argument of the different ideas that people have about the value of the human experience.
The leadership is a result of a combination of traits, with special emphasis on the personal qualities of the leader, which he should possess certain personality traits that would be special facilitators in leadership performance. This theory shows that leaders are born as such, there is no likelihood of 'making' them later with personal development techniques.
Today, medical interventions have made it possible to save or prolong lives, but should the process of dying be left to nature? (Brogden, 2001). Phrases such as, “killing is always considered murder,” and “while life is present, so is hope” are not enough to contract with the present medical knowledge in the Canadian health care system, which is proficient of giving injured patients a chance to live, which in the past would not have been possible (Brogden, 2001). According to Brogden, a number of economic and ethical questions arise concerning the increasing elderly population. This is the reason why the Canadian society ought to endeavor to come to a decision on what is right and ethical when it comes to facing death. Uhlmann (1998) mentions that individuals’ attitudes towards euthanasia differ. From a utilitarianism point of view – holding that an action is judged as good or bad in relation to the consequence, outcome, or end result that is derived from it, and people choosing actions that will, in a given circumstance, increase the overall good (Lum, 2010) - euthanasia could become a means of health care cost containment, and also, with specific safeguards and in certain circumstances the taking of a human life is merciful and that all of us are entitled to end our lives when we see fit.
More than likely, a good majority of people have heard about euthanasia at least once in their lifetime. For those out there who have been living under a rock their entire lives, euthanasia “is generally understood to mean the bringing about of a good death – ‘mercy killing’, where one person, ‘A’, ends the life of another person, ‘B’, for the sake of ‘B’.” (Kuhse 294). There are people who believe this is a completely logical scenario that should be allowed, and there are others that oppose this view. For the purpose of this essay, I will be defending those who are suffering from euthanasia.
Bennis claims that people are not born with these traits, and that people gain these traits by pushing themselves to exceed at leading others. He also argues that there’s a distinct difference between a person being a leader and a manger, and that the difference is leaders will lead others to higher success and to achieve goals when managers maintain everything how it is and nothing ever exceeds that point. Bennis believes that in order