Euthanasia

Here is another essay for you to use! It's alittle screwed up, but perhaps you can do something with it. It was a lot worse than this, it had strange marks all over it and the paragraphs were everywhere. I fixed it a bit, but I would go crazy if I stared at a computer screen any more!!!! Euthanasia, is one of the most controversial issues of our time.

This diver issue raises many questions such as: how should decisions be made, and by whom? What should be determined as a matter of law and what left a matter of discretion and judgment? Should those who want to die, or who are in a "persistent vegetative state" be allowed to die voluntarily? Who should decide: the patient, the physician, the courts, or the families? The pro-euthanasia arguments turn on the individual case of the patient in pain, suffering at the center of an intolerable existence. When life becomes unbearable, quick death can be the answer.

If living persons become so ill that they cannot tolerate the pain they have a "right to die" to an escape from torment. So long as the right to die means not prolonging the life by undesireable treatment, it may be classified as rational suicide. The term "euthanasia" means "good health" or "well dying"; it is derived from the Greek "eu" and "thanatos". In its classical sense, it is a descriptive term referring to an easy death as opposed to an agonizing or tormented dying.

In Greek literature, euthanasia connoted a "happy death, an ideal and coveted end to a full and pleasant life." The concern to die well is as old as humanity itself, for the questions surrounding death belong to the essence of being human. All people die, but apparently only people know they are to die. They live with the truth that life is under the sentence of death. Thus, from the "beginning of the species concern with how one dies has been an implicit part of the human attempt to come to terms with death. " Paul D.

Simmons, Ã ÃBirth and Death: Bioethical Decision Making (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1983) Page 117. There is still a question involved in the contemporary debates about euthanasia which is posed by a case such as the terminally ill who are dying. The issue concerns the morality of mercy in aiding the dying patient. The question goes beyond simply withdrawing treatm...

... middle of paper ...

... D. Simmons, Birth and Death: Bioethical Decision Making (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1983) p.113. Paul D. Simmons, Birth and Death: Bioethical Decision Making (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1983) p. 113. Ann Wickett, The Right To Die: Understanding Euthanasia (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1986) p.114. Samuel Gorovitz, Drawing The Line: Life, Death, and Ethical Choices in an American HospitalÄ (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991) p.10. Samuel Gorovitz, Drawing The Line: Life, Death, and Ethical Choices in an American Hospital (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991) p.10. Samuel Gorovitz, Drawing The Line: Life, Death, and Ethical Choices in an American Hospital (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991) p.17. Samuel Gorovitz, Drawing The Line: Life, Death, andEthical Choices in an American Hospital (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991) p.21. Ann Wickett, The Right To Die: Understanding Euthanasia (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1986) p.107. Ann Wickett, The Right To Die: Understanding Euthanasia (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1986) p.117. Thomas W. Case, Dying Made Easy (New York: Neal Bernards Inc., November 4, 1991) pp.25-26.