Euthanasia of Brain Death Patients: Is it Ethical?

Euthanasia of Brain Death Patients: Is it Ethical?

Euthanasia is a huge ethical dilemma within healthcare today. Many times it is unethical to euthanize a human being. However, I want to discuss the case of brain dead patients. Is it ethical to euthanize a person that no longer has a chance to live the life the used to have or even the chance to wake up ever again? Euthanasia should be ethically acceptable in a case where the person is diagnosed with brain death because it prevents the patient and the family prolonged suffering. Many people would disagree but I think that in a lot of cases it is what’s best for not only the patient but the family as well. There is a lot of stress put on a family member(s) to deal with the fact that their loved ones are no longer there but it can be hard to understand because with life support the person is still able to have a heart beat and is still be able to breathe. However the brain dead patient will not be able to breathe without the help of the machine so they are no longer truly alive.

This paper will be based solely on whether or not euthanasia is ethical in a brain dead patient. In other words whether or not it is ethically acceptable to remove life-support from someone that has no brain functioning. This does not include persistent vegetative state or coma where the person in considered to be alive. Brain death is defined as an irreversible, complete loss of function in the brain, including the brainstem (Goila & Pawar, 2009). In the case of brain death the patient no longer has the ability to breathe or have a heartbeat without the help of life support. If the brain is considered dead, the patient is also considered dead because without brain functioning there is nothing but...

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...everyone in most situations.

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