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Ethical dilemmas with euthanasia
Euthanasia pros cons
Ethical dilemma about euthanasia
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Do we have a right to die? Euthanasia is a peaceful way to die. Euthanasia is illegal in the United States. Only nine countries allow euthanasia such as Netherlands, Belgium, Colombia, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Canada, and some states in the U.S. Almost 55% of ill patients die in pain. Euthanasia comes from a Greek term “good death”. Most doctors agree that doctors should help the terminally ill and have a right to die. Others debate that euthanasia is assisted suicide. The big debate is allowing terminally ill patients to decide if they want to die or not and that comes with many pros and cons.
Those in favor of euthanasia, think that it should be legal and also voluntary. With making euthanasia legal it ends suffering for the terminally ill. There are four types: passive voluntary, passive involuntary, active voluntary, active involuntary. Passive voluntary is the right to refuse treatment. Passive involuntary is not taking the initiative to help someone that can’t help themselves. Active voluntary is when someone chooses to end their own life. Active involuntary is taking the initiative to help someone who can’t help themselves. Only 2/4 types of
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The debate is on whether its right or wrong to kill patients. Some people believe it isn't humane and others believe euthanasia is the personal choice. Some are against view euthanasia as murder and that we must respect the value of life. Those who are in favor of euthanasia believe that euthanasia eliminates the patient’s pain and suffering. Allowing humans to suffer is more inhumane than killing. Pros main concerns are that we should have a right to our own body, saves from suffering, alternatives are often worse, and shouldn’t be forced alive. Cons main concerns are legalizing murder, abuse, religions, ethics, and devalues human life. The controversy will still remain whether the argument over freedom of choice and the moral issues is
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.
Euthanasia has been a very polemic subject in American society. Its objective is to conclude the life of a person at their own request, a family member, or by the determination of a health care professional to avoid unnecessary suffering. There is a lot of moral and ethics involved in euthanasia, exist a big difference between provoke death and allow death. The first one rejects life, the second one accepts its natural end. Every single intentional act of provoke the death of a person without consent is opposed to ethics and is punishable by law. One of the biggest moral controversies in the XXI century is the fact that some people agree in the autonomy humans have to determine the moment of death. The moral and legal implications are huge and the practical benefits are also enormous. This is a touchy and controversial issue and my goal on writing this paper is to remain on favor of euthanasia. I will elaborate later on my reasons to believe and support euthanasia, but first let’s examine the historical perspective of this moral issue.
Second, voluntary euthanasia is when a competent person asks for help to end his life, while non-voluntary euthanasia is when a person is not competent to make the decision for himself, and involuntary euthanasia is when the patient is completely against euthanasia (National Right to Life). There is even a difference between euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, as euthanasia describes “the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals,“ while physician-assisted suicide is when a person is given the tools needed to end his own life by a physician (Suicide, Euthanasia, and Physician-Assisted Suicide). Although involuntary euthanasia should never be viewed as permissible, all other kinds of euthanasia should be legalized with the aid of living wills, giving the suffering patient the deserved right to determine his own death.... ... middle of paper ... ...2011. The. http://family.jrank.org/pages/468/Euthanasia.html>.
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.
Those against it are equally worried about the victim’s situation in where their lives are taken away without their consent and at the same time, the possibility of a recovery. However, just because something is not accepted by society does not mean it is wrong, as the pro side of involuntary Euthanasia mentions, it would end with the victims’ pain by giving them a peaceful death. The reason to keep someone alive is to give him/her a new opportunity to fight for an improvement, if there no such thing the best option, although the hardest too, is to let the person rest in a better place, the positive fact about practicing Euthanasia is that the organs of the victim will save a life. On the other hand, a good effect of keeping someone alive is that the family will still see their loved one. Besides, they will save many legal problems because of Euthanasia still illegal in many countries. Both sides can agree that their cases in where their beliefs do not fit, as an example for the ones that support involuntary Euthanasia, if there a possibility to a recover they cannot kill the patient, they must keep him/her alive until the doctors said something different. In comparison, an exception for the con side that does not support involuntary
The issues in the euthanasia debate usually revolve around patients who are terminally ill and/or suffering intractable pain. The patient must fully think about every aspect of what euthanasia would involve. I think that once a patient is seeking to end his or her life due to illness; they must have a will in place and also note the reason why they want to end their life. Euthanasia does raises lots of worrying ethical dilemmas like in what condition euthanasia can be justify, is there any ethical difference among killing someone and letting them die, is there any right to end the life of an individual who is suffering from serious
People who agree with euthanasia sat that the voluntary form of euthanasia will not lead to involuntary euthanasia. After much research, it has been found that there would be millions of situations each year that do not fall clearly into either category. An example of this would be an elderly man in a nursing home is asked to sign a form consenting to be killed. This man can barely read his newspaper in the morning, let alone read a form that someone hands to him and tells him to sign. Would this be voluntary or involuntary? (Johansen) One can argue either side. Researchers say that legalized euthanasia would most likely progress to a point where people are expected to volunteer for assisted death. Just as if your veterinarian says your old dog would be better put out of his or her misery by putting her to sleep, 10 years from now, a doctor would ask you, as the closest family member to your father, to approve a form of euthanasia because your father’s quality of life was not worth living. (Gallagher) The movement from voluntary to involuntary euthanasia would be somewhat like the movement of abortion. People who agree with euthanasia state that abortion is something that a woman chooses to do, that it is not forced on her and that voluntary euthanasia will not be forced on them either. But it is not an issue of force; it is an issue of the way laws concerning euthanasia can be expanded once it is declared legal.
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.
“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)
Physician-Assisted Suicide is assisted suicide from a physician to a person to make it as painless and dignified as possible. There is also Euthanasia, which is to end a person life so they don’t have to go through any more pain and suffering without the patients consent. As of right now, only Montana, Oregon, Vermont and Washington have legalized Physician-Assisted suicide. To be eligible for Physician-assisted suicide, a patient must have a terminally ill disease. There are many pros and cons in this if you are having unbearable pain and want to end the suffering.
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.
Society’s major arguments in favor of euthanasia believe that first, human beings have the right to decide when and how to die. Secondly, they believe that it is cruel and inhumane to refuse someone the right to die, when they are suffering intolerable and unstoppable pain, or distress. Thirdly, euthanasia should be allowed when it is in the best interests of all involved and does not violate anyone's rights. Finally, if death is not a terrible thing, then making it come sooner isn't a bad thing (life related issues). Also, they believe that allowing the act of ending someone’s life helps shorten the grief and suffering of the patient’s loved ones.
There exist three different types of euthanasia: active, passive and voluntary. Active euthanasia refers to the process of injection of painkillers and sleeping pills in order to reduce the time of suffering of a patient by making his death less painful. On the other side, voluntary euthanasia refers to the case of the conscientious patient, who voluntarily demands from the doctor to give up on treatments. In this case the patient is conscious that he will die soon and regardless that stops the treatments. In my discussion related to whether euthanasia should be legalized or not I will refer only to active and voluntary euthanasia arguments.
Each form of euthanasia also has a set of arguments that accompany them. Some of the common pro euthanasia arguments are the right choice. The patient should be able to be given the option to make the decision to die and to do with dignity. The quality of life argument is another. This is when only the patient knows what it is like to have persistent unstoppable suffering, and pain. Even with pain relievers it is not enough. With the pro arguments comes the cons. The most common cons are guilty, slippery slope to murder, competence, and what the doctor’s role is in all of
Arguments against Euthanasia include that instead of euthanasia there are alternative treatments available such as palliative care and hospices. It also suggests that to remove or minimise symptoms you do not have to kill the patient, and with todays advances in technology and medicine nearly all pain can be relieved. There is also the hazard and risk that by giving the doctors the power to decide if the patient’s life is not worth living, this may lead them from voluntary euthanasia to involuntary euthanasia. Similarly the notion that patients have the right to die imposes the doctor the duty to kill therefore restricting the independence of the doctor’s decision.