'The Physician Assisted Suicide'

             Life has been given as a gift to man from God and at times a moment comes where man is to decide whether he has the right to end life. Fundamentally there are two types of euthanasia. One is Active Euthanasia and the other is Passive Euthanasia. Passive euthanasia is seen in an example where a patient requiring dialysis, is not put on the dialysis machine and hence dies. Active euthanasia is seen where a patient is injected some poison to cause death. "In active euthanasia you directly and intentionally cause a person's death. In passive euthanasia you do not directly take their life but you permit them to die" (Dr. J.P. Moreland). In essence it can be said that in active euthanasia, something is done to cause the death while in passive euthanasia something is not done to cause the death of the patient. Although the end result of both types is the same people do make a moral distinction between the two types of euthanasia. The distinction being, the difference between killing someone and just letting someone die. However there are others who feel that this is one of the same things. Comparatively active euthanasia is morally a better option because the patient is relieved from suffering a slow death. His death is quick and less painful compared to passive euthanasia and should be adopted in the terminally ill patients. Many people differentiate between physician assisted suicide and active euthanasia claiming that in physician assisted suicide the patient has to administer the lethal medication himself. What they fail to realize is that the difference in causation has no significant effect over the patient's situation. The action of the physician administering the lethal medication or giving the medication to the patient to take is not a factor that can claim the two actions to be entirely different. "At any point in the process, from the time that discussions of active euthanasia first occur to the moment when the physician gives the lethal injection, the patient is free to change her mind and call a halt to the proceedings.

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