Euthanasia and Living Wills

1123 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Moral and ethical aspects of Euthanasia

Euthanasia and Living Wills

Imagine someone you love...better yet, imagine yourself lying in a

hospital bed oblivious to the world around you, unable to move or show any signs

of life, your own existence controlled by an I.V., a respiratory machine, and a

feeding tube. In essence you are dead. Your body is no longer able to sustain

life, its entire purpose is now replaced by a machine - you are being kept alive

by artificial means. At this point the question arises - should you be kept

alive by these means or should you be allowed to die a natural death?

Unfortunately you are unable to answer this question because your voice is

limited to a "beep" on a heart monitor machine. Who then is going to decide if

you live artificially or die naturally? Who gets to play God? Well, if your

family doesn't have your written consent in the form of a living will, to cease

life support, then the doctor will make the ultimate decision for both you and

your family.

Most often this is the case. Even though writing a living will is just

as easy if not easier than writing a death will, many people don't take the time

to do so. Therefore, doctors have to debate the question of euthanasia - a

question that each one of us should ponder long before we are put in this

situation.

What is euthanasia? Euthanasia is not mercy killing. It has absolutely

nothing to do with killing. On the contrary, euthanasia by definition simply

means "good death" and in the applied sense it refers to "the patients own

natural death without prolonging their dying process unduly." What this

attempts to accomplish is to allow a person to die with peace and dignity. In

most cases life-support systems simply prolong the terminal suffering of a

patient by a few more weeks or months, they do nothing to return a patient to a

normal functioning human being. With most terminally ill patients life support

does not mean prolonging life - it means prolonging suffering, for both the

patient and their family.

Although there are no statutes legalizing euthanasia in the U.S. many

doctors end a terminal patients life by administering a fatal dose of a drug

that they were previously administering.

Show More
Related

  • Ethical Issue in Comfort Care

    659 Words  | 2 Pages

    The boundaries of right to die with dignity are hard to determine. Keeping the terminal patient comfortable is the purpose of comfort care, however there could be a very thin line between what we consider terminal sedation and euthanasia. In theory, comfort care is quite different from euthanasia. Keeping the patient comfortable and letting the nature take its course is at the core of comfort measures (Gamliel, 2012). Yet, the line between keeping comfortable and facilitating death is often blurry. Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering (Gamliel, 2012). The purpose of this paper is to highlight the ethical issue of keeping comfortable vs. hastening death, and the ethical principles involved. Facilitating or hastening death is considered unethical or even illegal.

    Read More

  • Physician-Assisted Suicide and Free Will

    2443 Words  | 5 Pages

    Physician-assisted suicide (PAS) is a topic, which proponents often support by the affirmation of patient free will or as the exercise of patient autonomy. The purpose of this paper is to examine this argument further from an inter-disciplinary approach, regarding PAS from medical, ethical and legal standpoints and to examine the concept of free will from the philosophical discipline. Are these concepts compatible in a meaningful context and can a sound argument be constructed to support PAS on the basis of patient free will?

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Cannabis Packaging: Attractive, Compliant And Affordable

    1405 Words  | 3 Pages

    More importantly, the decision to purchase is done subconsciously. This means that the majority of the time, your consumer is not even aware of their decision to buy or not to buy your product. In fact,

    Read More

  • Monopolistic Competition In A Perfect Competition: Microeconomics

    1254 Words  | 3 Pages

    A perfect competition is a microeconomics idea that depicts a market sector structure controlled totally by market sector powers. In a perfectly competitive market sector, all organizations offer indistinguishable products and services. Firms could not control winning market sector costs, piece of the overall industry per firm is little, firms and clients have immaculate learning about the market, and no boundaries to passage or way out exist. If by any chance that any of these conditions are not met, a market sector is not perfectly competitive. Perfect competition is a conceptual idea that happens in economics aspects course books. However, not in this present reality. Imperfect competition, in which a focused market sector does not meet

    Read More

  • The Right to Physician Assisted Suicide

    1874 Words  | 4 Pages

    The right to assisted suicide is a significant topic that concerns people all over the United States. The debates go back and forth about whether a dying patient has the right to die with the assistance of a physician. Some are against it because of religious and moral reasons. Others are for it because of their compassion and respect for the dying. Physicians are also divided on the issue. They differ where they place the line that separates relief from dying--and killing. For many the main concern with assisted suicide lies with the competence of the terminally ill. Many terminally ill patients who are in the final stages of their lives have requested doctors to aid them in exercising active euthanasia. It is sad to realize that these people are in great agony and that to them the only hope of bringing that agony to a halt is through assisted suicide.When people see the word euthanasia, they see the meaning of the word in two different lights. Euthanasia for some carries a negative connotation; it is the same as murder. For others, however, euthanasia is the act of putting someone to death painlessly, or allowing a person suffering from an incurable and painful disease or condition to die by withholding extreme medical measures. But after studying both sides of the issue, a compassionate individual must conclude that competent terminal patients should be given the right to assisted suicide in order to end their suffering, reduce the damaging financial effects of hospital care on their families, and preserve the individual right of people to determine their own fate.

    Read More

  • Should Physcian-Assisted Suicide be Legal

    826 Words  | 2 Pages

    The approach of physician-assisted suicide respects an individual’s need for personal dignity. It does not force the terminally ill patient to linger hopelessly, and helplessly, often at great cost to their psyche. It drive’s people mad knowing they are going to die in a short period of time, suffering while they wait in a hospital bed.

    Read More

  • Euthanasia and the Right to Die

    2072 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Oxford English Dictionary defines euthanasia as “the action of inducing a gentle and easy death” (Oxford English Dictionary). Many people around the world would like nothing more than to end their lives because they are suffering from painful and lethal diseases; suffering people desperately seek doctors to help them end their lives. Many people see euthanasia as murder, so euthanasia is illegal in many countries. Euthanasia is an extremely controversial issue that has many complex factors behind it including medical costs, murder and liberty rights. Should people have the rights to seek euthanasia from doctors who are well trained in dealing with euthanasia?

    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

  • Euthanasia and Futile Care

    1631 Words  | 4 Pages

    Imagine visiting your 85-year-old mother in the hospital after she has a debilitating stroke. You find out that, in order to survive, she requires a feeding tube and antibiotics to fight an infection. She once told you that no matter what happened, she wants to live. But the doctor refuses further life-sustaining treatment. When you ask why, you are told, in effect, "The time has come for your mother to die. All we will provide is comfort care."

    Read More

  • Understanding Consumer's Behavior

    1463 Words  | 3 Pages

    This report aims to provide a mix review of theories and personal case study. I will apply two consumer behaviour theories in relation to my own purchase decisions.

    Read More

  • Monopoly Vs Monopoly Essay

    1263 Words  | 3 Pages

    A perfect competition and a monopoly are two very different and unique market structures. Under monopolies firms get normal profits only in the short period, but disappears in the long run. Monopolies come with strong barriers to enter and exit the market. Under a monopoly, a monopolist can charge different prices and no one can complain because everything is being ran by one big business. In a monopoly the average revenue curve slopes downward, and the demand curve is very inelastic. Both monopolies and perfect competitions want to maximize profits, although monopolistic prices are usually higher. A pure monopoly is rare like a perfectly competitive market, but there are elements of monopolies in some markets. In this paper I will go into detail about both of these markets.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast The Four Market Structures

    1100 Words  | 3 Pages

    Perfect and monopolistic competition markets both share elasticity of demand in the long run. In both markets the consumer is aware of the price, if the price was to increase the demand for the product would decrease resulting in suppliers being unable to make a profit in the long run. Lastly, both markets are composed of firms seeking to maximise their profits. Profit maximization occurs when a firm produces goods to a high level so that the marginal cost of the production equates its marginal

    Read More

  • Consumer Buying Behavior

    2165 Words  | 5 Pages

    A. Consumer behavior comprises all the consumer decisions and activities connected with choosing, buying, using, and disposing of goods and services.

    Read More

  • Debate Speech Opposing the That Euthanasia Should be Legalized

    844 Words  | 2 Pages

    it is not our choice when or how to conclude our lives as we owe our

    Read More

  • Cost And Consumer Value: The Benefits Of Customer Value

    2044 Words  | 5 Pages

    There can be many things that might factor into the want to buy something. There are many steps that a customer takes before actually buying a product.

    Read More

More about Euthanasia and Living Wills

Open Document