Euthanasia

A detailed Summary of Euthanasia

An eighty year old man sits in his wheelchair at a nursing home, he is wearing an old pajama top and a diaper that is covered only by the lap blanket that he has over his legs. He is also on Oxygen and because of that he is confined to his room until the aids can help him. It has been 10 years now that he has been in the wheelchair and on Oxygen and 10 years since he has been outside to smell the fresh air and have the sun shine on his face. A Heart Attack, Alzheimer's disease, Arthritis, and Depression are just a few examples of what is wrong with him. It doesn't matter how many Vicodin he takes the pain just won't go away, how much Prozac they give him, the depression is still there in the morning. He has lost his will to live, and the only thing he ask you to do is let him die. Let him die without pain, let him die without suffering.

What this man is asking for is called Euthanasia also known as Mercy Killing. The word Euthanasia originated from the Greek language: eu means "good" and thanatos means "death". The meaning of the word is " the intentional termination of life by another at the explicit request of the person who dies"[Netherlands State Commission on Euthanasia]. There are however different types of Euthanasia. Th

" Life is a gift from God, and that only God can start a life so therefore only God should be allowed to end it. An individual who commits suicide is committing sin." That is an argument offered by Christians that advice against an individual seeking suicide, for whatever reason. Agnostics, Atheists, Humanists, and non-Christians will argue that "each person has autonomy over their own lives. Persons whose quality of life is nonexistent should have the right to decide to commit suicide, and seek assistance if necessary" [ Euthanasia, Synod of the Great Lakes, Reformed church in America]. In New Atlantis (1627), British philosopher Francis Bacon (1561-1626) writes that physicians are " not only to restore the health, but to mitigate pain and dolours; and not only when such mitigation may conduce to recovery, but when it may serve to make a fair and easy passage" [The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy].

In December 1973, the American Medical Association adopted a "death with dignity" report urging doctors to respect a dying patient's wishes regarding the amount of medical care they were to receive. Yet decisions to remove life-support systems still come hard to many medical doctors - they are, after all, committed and restoring a person to health, not to ending life. Some are concerned about legal problems, and rightly so. To help avoid litigation, a directive to physicians called " The Living Will" has been produced by the Euthanasia Education Council (now known as "Concern for Dying") and is available to anyone who requests a copy. [Derek Humphry: Let me die before I wake]

· Not delivering CPR (cardio-pulmonary resuscitation) and allowing a person, whose heart has stopped, to die.

Active Euthanasia involves causing the death of a person through a direct action, in response to a request from that person. A well known example was the mercy killing in 1998 of a patient with ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) by Dr. Jack Kevorkian, a Michigan physician. His patient was frightened that the advancing disease would cause him to die a horrible death in the near future: he wanted a quick and painless exit from life. Dr. Kevorkian injected controlled substances into the patient, causing death. Charged with 1st degree murder, the jury found him guilty of 2nd degree murder in March 1999.

More people are willing to accept Passive Euthanasia over Active Euthanasia, as in some cases it is permiss

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Approximate Word count = 1621
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Politics