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Euthanasia argument issue investigation
Arguments against Euthanasia
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Euthanasia is known as the practice of deliberately ending a life which releases an individual from an incurable disease or intolerable suffering, also known as a gentle and easy death. Currently Euthanasia is a worldwide topic being discussed, but is not allowed by law to be practiced on people. Most people either strictly forbid it because of religious belief or moral belief, but most people firmly favor euthanasia because of personal experience. Euthanasia should be legalized because patients with a terminal illness are given the choice to end their life in the most painless way. On October 27, 1997 Oregon was the first state to pass the Death With Dignity Act. This Act allows people who are terminally ill to ask their doctors for lethal medication.It is required that patients make two verbal request and one written request with a witness present. Then two doctors must agree on the patient’s diagnosis, prognosis and the patient's capability. The patient must administer the lethal medication themselves(Nitschke). However, Oregon laws strictly prohibit euthanasia, but what if someone is to ill to write or verbally speak? What then? Is it right that a person has to suffer through 6 months of life support before they die just because the law says that even though a person is going to die soon that it is wrong to help them end their suffering. Many people today connect Euthanasia to the famous case of Terri Schiavo, where after 5 years of being on life support, her husband made the conscious decision to remove her feeding tube and other medications. After Schiavo's death they conducted an autopsy which established that her brain weighed half that of a healthy human brain -- severe damage that left her blind and incapable of thoug... ... middle of paper ... ...tent enough to decide on suicide. People who are not depressed. Everyone has a right for suicide, because a person has a right to determine what will or will not be done to his body.” Works Cited "Euthanasia Statistics." http://www.statisticbrain.com/euthanasia-statistics/. Statistic Brain , 23 7 2012. Web. 22 Oct 2013. ProCon.org. "Euthanasia ProCon.org" ProCon.org. 15 Oct. 2013. Web. 30 Oct. 2013. euthanasia.procon.org/>. Nitschke, Dr Philip. "Death with Dignity in Oregon, Washington & (soon to Be) Montana." Euthanasia and the Law in the United States of America. Dr Philip Nitschke, n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2013. Abby Goodnough, "Schiavo Autopsy Says Brain, Withered, Was Untreatable", The New York Times, 16 June 2005. Emanuel, Ezekiel. "Whose Right To Die? - 97.03."Whose Right To Die? - 97.03. The Atlantic Monthly Company, Mar. 1997. Web. 15 Oct. 2013.
Sloss, David. "The Right to Choose How to Die: A Constitutional Analysis of State Laws Prohibiting Physician-Assisted Suicide." Stanford Law Review. 48.4 (1996): 937-973. Web. 2 March 2015.
The term Euthanasia is derived from the Greek roots, taking the words ‘eu’, meaning good or well, and ‘thanatos’, meaning death, to create the term “good death ”. (Definition of Euthanasia . 2011) The term ‘Euthanasia’ is not defined specifically within Australian Legislation, however the generalised definition states that Euthanasia is intentionally taking another person’s life by the means of a direct action or depriving a person of the medical care needed to preserve life. (Euthanasia: What Does It Really Mean? Date Unknown). Linda Jackson (2005) continues to add that Euthanasia can then be further separated into four specified categories: Passive voluntary euthanasia, active voluntary euthanasia, passive involuntary euthanasia and active involuntary euthanasia. Voluntary Euthanasia will be the specified area that will be focused on within this assignment.
Bernards, Neal, Ed. (1989). Euthanasia: Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints Series, Series Eds. David L. Bender and Bruno Leone. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press.
"Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide: All Sides." [On-Line]. Available: http://www.relgious tolerance.org/euthanas.htm #beli Downloaded: November 6, 1997
According to Longman dictionary euthanasia means “the deliberate killing of a person who is very ill ‘(terminal illness)’ and going to die, in order to stop them suffering.” There are two different types of euthanasia; active and passive. Euthanasia is legalized in some parts of the world like Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, Oregon, Montana and Washington. Euthanasia should not be legalized in Canada because it is not lawful, ethical, and violates Canada’s respect for every religion.
“Do Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide Violate the Hippocratic Oath?” ProCon.org. Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, 2001. Web. 21 March 2014.
A person should have the option to discontinue living if they are in unbearable pain. The unrecoverable unconscious patients should have a relative make the choice for them. But only if they cannot make the choice themselves, such as a permanent coma, nonfunctioning brain, etc. A person suffering immense unbearable pain should be able to choose whether they want to continue fighting the pain. “In October 2014, twenty-nine-year-old Brittany Maynard renewed attention to the debate over euthanasia when she posted a YouTube video relating her personal story. Maynard was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in January 2014. After weighing the various treatment options, she decided that she would end her life before the disease became intolerable. She and her husband moved from California to Oregon, where assisted suicide [has been legal since] 1997. She established residency in the state and was able to obtain a prescription for a lethal dose of medication from her doctor” (Assisted Suicide and
Smith, Cheryl. "Should Active Euthanasia Be Legalized: Yes." American Bar Association Journal April 1993. Rpt. in CQ Researcher 5.1 (1995): 409.
Munns, Craig A. "The Morality of Euthanasia" Class lecture, Critical Thinking and Ethics, Miami-Dade College, Miami, Florida, January 30, 2014.
Ball, Howard. At Liberty to Die: The Battle for Death with Dignity in America. New York: New York University Press, 2012. Print.
Robert Matz; Daniel P. Sudmasy; Edward D. Pallegrino. "Euthanasia: Morals and Ethics." Archives of Internal Medicine 1999: p1815 Aug. 9, 1999 .
Dougherty, Charles J. & Co. “Legalizing Euthanasia Would Harm Society.” Euthanasia- Opposing Viewpoints. Ed.
Defenders in personal liberties argue that all people are morally entitled to end their lives when we feel it to be necessary (Johansen, 2000). Jay Johansen states in his article “Euthanasia: A Case of Individual Liberty?”, “Rather than endure great pain and suffering for the remainder of their lives, ill patients should have the ethical choice to choose to end their [suffering]” (Johansen, 2000). Samia Hurst in her article “Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia” affirms, “Some patients may request euthanasia to avoid the weakness and loss of mental failures that some diseases cause, and many people feel that the wisher shou...
Euthanasia, according to the dictionary, means the killing of a person who is suffering from an incurable disease. Lately, it had been a huge debate over whether euthanasia should be legalized or not. Personally, I believe that euthanasia should be legalized if it is voluntary. I have three reasons for my argument.
Euthanasia is a medical procedure which speeds up the process of dying for people with incurable, painful, or distressing diseases. The patient’s doctor can stop treatment and instead let them die from their illness. It come from the Greek words for 'good' and 'death', and is also called mercy killing. Euthanasia is illegal in most countries including the UK . If you suffer from an incurable disease, you cannot legally terminate your life. However, in a number of European countries it is possible to go to a clinic which will assist you to die gracefully under some very strict circumstances.