Euthanasia
Both acts that result in a person's death in order to relieve pain and suffering interprets David Gittelman from the article "Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide". Euthanasia comes from the Greek word meaning "good death" because there is not a long drawn out process of suffering, but a peaceful and painless death. The original meaning of the euthanasia in pre-Socratic times was the psychological preparation of the comforting of a dying patient. However, euthanasia today is an action taken by someone (usually a physician) that results either directly or eventually in another person's death. Voluntary euthanasia expresses a wish by a competent person to have their life ended, whereas involuntary euthanasia the person does not have the ability to express a competent decision. In contrast to euthanasia, PAS (or assisted suicide when someone other that a physician is involved) is the provision to a person of the means to end their life (1). Because death is final and irreversible, euthanasia weakens the determination of doctors. The result would be an overall decline in the quality of medical care. Therefore, euthanasia and PAS should be illegal in the United States. The history of this debated issue proves that it h
as never been legally accepted I our society. According to the internet article "History of Euthanasia" during 400 BC the Hippocratic Oath by the "Father of Medicine" Greek physician Hypocrites stated, "I will give no deadly medicine to anyone, if asked, nor suggest any such counsel"(1). Historically the role of doctors has been to save lives and ease pain. Although people's morals changed in the 1800's, when Darwinism, survival of the fittest, led to the British idea of eugenics (improving society through propagation of the well-to-do and culling the Dr. Kevorkian is an arguably useless doctor who make and euthanasia/PAS argument a little more abstract. Neil Gorsuch, a writer from the Southern Medical Journal quotes Dr. Kevorkian for saying that we must eliminate the "defective" in order to "strengthen the gene pool" or that we should "surplus" people because the world is "overpopulated". Dr. Kevorkian helped more than 130 people commit suicide, and is currently serving a prison sentence of 10 to 25 years in Michigan. He was convicted of second-degree murder in April of 1999. Following his trial, he appeared on national television in which he administered a lethal injection into Thomas Youk, a 52-year-old man suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease; Kevorkian dared the criminal justice system to stop him. An analysis of 69 assisted suicides supervised by Jack Kevorkian has concluded that 75 percent of his patients were not terminally ill when he helped them die, and that autopsies could not confirm any physical disease in five of the cases(1). Dr. Kevorkian portrays one of the most frightening forms of euthanasia, which is when a person decides that someone else's life is not worth living, and kills them. It is wrong to directly intend the death of an innocent human being, including oneself. If it is wrong to kill directly, it is wrong to assist in direct killing, even in the case of voluntary suicide of a terminally ill patient. A crippled person, a mentally retarted person, or even an elderly person is no less valuable than a young healthy life. The fact that they contribute less to the economy has nothing to do with their value as human beings. Gorsuch explains that Dereck Humphry, founder of the Hemlock Society, a group devoted to promoting the Dr. Kevorkian unfortunately does not walk alone in the battle to legalize euthanasia/PAS. Rita Marker in the article "Dying for the Cause" observes the first group in the United States to publicly admit that they offered assistance in committing suicide was the Hemlock Society; they proudly stepped forward and spoke out. The Hemlock Society was formed in its own words, "to help terminal patients remain control over how their lives come to an end including the option of hastening inevitable death. All of the right-to-die organizations formed by the private foundations that fund their attempts to legalize not only assisted suicide, but euthanasia. Few people realize the vital role private foundations play in promoting societal change, and the major shifts in public attitudes and public policy come not from grassroots clamor, but rather from the hard work of a few committed activists with the ideas and the donors who fund them. Some private foundations that fund the assisted suicide groups prefer to distance themselves from the actual controversy. William Stubing, president of the Greenwall Foundation, explains, remarkably enough, that Greenwall "takes no stand on any issues which it funds" (1-2). Without money, those inspired to agitate for change would not get exceptionally far. It is wrong to fund a group that has an objective of murder. There are many positive organizations that need money for a good cause. Unfortunately, the government is unable to control who funds the right-to-die organizations. poor and unfortunate) asserts Melvin Urofsky, author of the book Lethal Judgments (25). The court system did not become involved with the debated issue of
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2799
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)
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