Euthanasia: Is It Right or Wrong?

922 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Ethical conflicts about voluntary and non voluntary euthanasia

Many people may say there is a fine line between right and wrong, but when the choice comes to end someone's life in order to end their suffering, who's to say where that line lies? When it comes to assisted suicide, for me that line is drawn on the side where assisted suicide is right but only under certain circumstances. “No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share” There are several different types of euthanasia. The first is called "voluntary euthanasia" which is where the patient is willing and wanting to die. The second is called "involuntary euthanasia" which is where the victim is unwilling and not wanting to die. The third type of euthanasia is called "active euthanasia" which is where the victim or doctor uses drugs to end the life of the victim. The fourth type of euthanasia is called "passive euthanasia" which is where the victim is killed by withdrawing the necessary needs to stay alive, such as water, food, drugs or medical surgical procedures. The fifth type of euthanasia is called "physician-assisted suicide" which is where the doctor is the one killing the patients. The last type of euthanasia is called "assisted suicide" which is suicide that is aided by another person. (http://www.terrisfight.org/facts-about-euthanasia/) In my view, I think any type of suicide is wrong. Under certain circumstances, it’s understandable, although still wrong. Studies show, that the top five reasons given by patients who elected physician assisted suicide in 2005 were: fear of decreasing ability to do enjoyable activities, fear of loss of dignity, fear of losing autonomy, fear of losing control of bodily functions and fear of being a burd... ... middle of paper ... ...ason is one I’m not sure I like too much, because dogs and humans are two totally different things, although both are living, I believe that dogs share a universal soul while humans are each individual. One last argument is: “Keeping people alive costs a lot of money, which could be used to save other people's lives” this argument also bothers me a bit. It’s true that keeping people alive costs money, but that money is FOR keeping people alive. Although the people being kept alive aren’t willing to live, that alone counters my debate. (http://www.rsrevision.com/GCSE/christian_perspectives/life/euthanasia/for.htm) When it comes to a family member or a loved one of your own, how would you feel about having to be put in a position where you have to choose life or death for that person? What would you pick? Even if that person wanted to die, where do you draw the line?

Show More
Related

  • The Pros And Cons Of Physician Assisted Suicide

    1532 Words  | 4 Pages

    Physician assisted suicide, is it ethically right or morally wrong? The global controversy becomes emotional as some argue that physician-assisted suicide contradicts moral reasoning to preserve life. Others argue that it is acceptable for a dying person to choose to escape unbearable suffering and to alleviate their pain. In order to choose a side of the controversy, one must understand the meaning of physician assisted suicide and what a terminally ill patient is. Physician assisted suicide occurs when a physician supervises a patient’s death by providing the necessary means for the patient to manage the death.

    Read More

  • Euthanasia and Frankenstein

    1448 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are several important ethical issues related to euthanasia. One is allowing people who are terminally ill and suffering the right to choose death. Should these people continue to suffer even though they really are ba...

    Read More

  • Death with Dignity or Sanctity of Life: Who Gets to Choose?

    978 Words  | 2 Pages

    Starting with the argument of it not being ethical, Martin Levin a practicing attorney states; that when he first began his paper and research he believed people should have the right to an assisted suicide. After doing extensive research he changed his mind. Just some of these reasons include sanctity of human life. It is stated that God created the human life and therefore our lives and bodies are the property of God. It is also stated that no one has the right to destroy Gods’ property (Levin M. 2002). In many churches ho...

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons: The Idea Of Physician-Assisted Suicide

    924 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are pro’s and con’s to idea of being assisted medically with suicide. On one hand it’s not our place to take away a life and it’s completely contrary to what a physician is suppose to do. Aren’t doctors supposed to keep their patients alive and provide care for their patients? How is this any different from legalized murder? On the other side of things this is seen as a mercy killing for those whom are suffering. Why have a patient live their final months in pain and suffering? There are so many arguments for and against physician-assisted suicide and unfortunately there’s no true or correct answer, it’s simply

    Read More

  • Physician Assisted Suicide: A Compassionate Mean to End Suffering

    1116 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although physician assisted suicide may result in the fulfillment of another’s choice, be considered a compassionate means to end suffering, or even be considered a right, I believe it is not morally acceptable. In the act of physician assisted suicide, a patient voluntarily requests his or her doctor to assist in providing the means needed for self-harm. In most cases of physician assisted suicide, patients who request this type of assistance are terminally ill and mentally competent (i.e. have sufficient understanding of an individual’s own situation and purpose and consequences of any action). Those who have committed the action of physician assisted suicide or condone the act may believe that one has the right to end their own life, the right of autonomy (the right or condition of self governing), the right to a dignified death, believe that others have a duty to minimize suffering, or believe it (physician assisted suicide) to be a compassionate act, or a combination of these things. However, since this act violates the intrinsic value of human life, it is not morally acceptable.

    Read More

  • Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide are Murder

    1004 Words  | 3 Pages

    "If suicide is a right, then it is one that has remained undiscovered throughout the ages by the great thinkers in law, ethics, philosophy and theology. It appears nowhere in the Bible or the Koran or the Talmud. Committing suicide wasn't a "right" a thousand years ago, and it isn't one now. That's why most societies, including our own, have passed laws against it" (Callahan, pg. 71). Assisted suicide is murder!

    Read More

  • Jack Kevorkian Research Paper

    1549 Words  | 4 Pages

    I understand that the nation’s history has long prohibited and shunned suicide, but in my opinion this is different. This is a more dignified death, which deals with personal autonomy. I understand the fears that the different states have regarding legalizing assisted suicide. However, other countries as well as some of the states have legalized it. It has not caused mass assisted suicides and I believe that it could be done in such a way that does not comprise the patient doctor trust. I am not saying that I condone assisted suicide for everyone, but it needs to be an option for people. I think that if abortion is an option, then assisted suicide should be too.

    Read More

  • Assisted Suicide Thesis

    671 Words  | 2 Pages

    Today's society is now introduced to one of the most controversial issues; assisted suicide. Just like in other controversial arguments, there are many people that feel that it is wrong for people to ask their healthcare provider to end one's life; while others feel that if the person is terminally ill and has given their will to die, that they can be assisted in suicide. Though both sides are reasonable many people believe that people should not take part in helping someone take their own life, assisted suicide should be legal because, it plays a factor of conquering one’s feelings, gives an option to those whom are terminally ill or in immense pain, and every human

    Read More

  • Ethical Issues With Physician Assisted Suicide

    824 Words  | 2 Pages

    The ethical issues of physician-assisted suicide are both emotional and controversial, as it struggles with the issue of life and death. If you take a moment and imagine how you would choose to live your last day, it is almost guaranteed that it wouldn’t be a day spent lying in a hospital bed, suffering in pain, continuously being pumped with medicine, and living in a strangers’ body. Today we live in a culture that denies the terminally ill the right to maintain control over when and how to end their lives. Physicians-assisted suicide “is the voluntary termination of one's own life by the administration of a lethal substance with the direct or indirect assistance of a physician” (Medical Definition of Physician-Assisted Suicide, 2017). Physician-assisted

    Read More

  • Ethics of Euthanasia

    1466 Words  | 3 Pages

    As patients come closer to the end of their lives, certain organs stop performing as well as they use to. People are unable to do simple tasks like putting on clothes, going to the restroom without assistance, eat on our own, and sometimes even breathe without the help of a machine. Needing to depend on someone for everything suddenly brings feelings of helplessness much like an infant feels. It is easy to see why some patients with terminal illnesses would seek any type of relief from this hardship, even if that relief is suicide. Euthanasia or assisted suicide is where a physician would give a patient an aid in dying. “Assisted suicide is a controversial medical and ethical issue based on the question of whether, in certain situations, Medical practioners should be allowed to help patients actively determine the time and circumstances of their death” (Lee). “Arguments for and against assisted suicide (sometimes called the “right to die” debate) are complicated by the fact that they come from very many different points of view: medical issues, ethical issues, legal issues, religious issues, and social issues all play a part in shaping people’s opinions on the subject” (Lee). Euthanasia should not be legalized because it is considered murder, it goes against physicians’ Hippocratic Oath, violates the Controlled

    Read More

  • Ethical Issues Of Euthanasia

    1581 Words  | 4 Pages

    Any discussion that pertains to the topic of euthanasia must first include a clear definition of the key terms and issues. With this in mind, it should be noted that euthanasia includes both what has been called physician-assisted "suicide" and voluntary active euthanasia. Physician-assisted suicide involves providing lethal medication(s) available to the patient to be used at a time of the patient’s own choosing (Boudreau, p.2, 2014). Indifferently, voluntary active euthanasia involves the physician taking an active role in carrying out the patient’s request, and usually involves intravenous delivery of a lethal substance. Physician-assisted suicide is felt to be easier psychologically for the physician and patient than euthanasia because

    Read More

  • The Pros and Cons of Euthanasia

    1265 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Euthanasia is defined as a deliberate act undertaken by one person with the intention of ending life of another person to relieve that person's suffering and where the act is the cause of death.”(Gupta, Bhatnagar and Mishra) Some define it as mercy killing. Euthanasia may be voluntary, non voluntary and involuntary. When terminally ill patient consented to end his or her life, it is called voluntary euthanasia. Non voluntary euthanasia occurs when the suffering person never consented nor requested to end a life. These patients are incompetent to decide because they are either minor, in a comatose stage or have mental conditions. Involuntary euthanasia is conducted when it is against the will of the patient (Gupta, Bhatnagar, Mishra). Euthanasia can be either passive or active. Passive euthanasia means life-sustaining treatments are withheld and nothing is done to keep the patient alive. Active euthanasia occurs when a physician do something by giving drugs or substances that ends a patient’s life. (Medical News Today)

    Read More

  • The Case for Euthanasia

    2340 Words  | 5 Pages

    The different types of Euthanasia are active or passive euthanasia and voluntary or involuntary euthanasia. Passive Euthanasia generally refers to the ending of a persons life by removing the person from a life-sustaining machine, such as a respirator. This form of euthanasia is endorsed by the American Medical Association and is less controversial than active euthanasia. Active euthanasia refers to ending a persons life by a competent medical authority giving the person a lethal injection of a muscle relaxant or pain killer medication. The terms voluntary or involuntary refer to whether or not a patient requests euthanasia or whether the patient is not able to make such a request and euthanasia is carried out by a competent medical authority at the request of another family member, or by a competent medical authority’s decision. Involuntary euthanasia usually occurs when a patient is comatose.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Assisted Suicide

    1062 Words  | 3 Pages

    Assisted suicide brings up one of the biggest moral debates currently circulating in America. Physician assisted suicide allows a patient to be informed, including counseling about and prescribing lethal doses of drugs, and allowed to decide, with the help of a doctor, to commit suicide. There are so many questions about assisted suicide and no clear answers. Should assisted suicide be allowed only for the terminally ill, or for everyone? What does it actually mean to assist in a suicide? What will the consequences of legalizing assisted suicide be? What protection will there be to protect innocent people? Is it (morally) right or wrong? Those who are considered “pro-death”, believe that being able to choose how one dies is one’s own right.

    Read More

  • Euthanasia: Not Morally Acceptable

    1644 Words  | 4 Pages

    By contrast, I argue that euthanasia is fundamentally wrong because it involves killing. It arbitrarily takes life and denies natural dying process. Therefore, euthanasia violates the belief that human being has intrinsic value until arriving at death. In practical term, we have no right over our death, as over birth itself. Our right for choice is only available between birth and death.

    Read More

More about Euthanasia: Is It Right or Wrong?

Open Document