The committee then informs the family about the decision and, when the request is granted, discusses with the patient how he or she will go through the procedure of euthanasia or PAS. When possible, the patient is asked to sign a declaration of will, which, together with a report on the procedure, will be included with his or her hospital records (Scheper 1994). Some debaters have called attention to the

Euthanasia (against) In North America most people die that can be called a bad death. A study found that "More often than not, patients died in pain, their desires concerning treatment neglected, after spending 10 days or more in an intensive care unit" (Horgan, 1996). The term Euthanasia has originated from the Greek language: eu meaning "good" and thanatos meaning "death." However, according to the Netherlands State Commission, another meaning given to

Right or Wrong? EuthanasiaIntroductionIn 2000 veteran actor Richard Farnsworth at the age of 80 took his own life rather than allow cancer to consume his final days and force him to become a burden to his family (AP). The news was shocking to some fans of the beloved series Anne of Green Gables, in which Farnsworth had starred as the beloved surrogate father to the eponymous heroine. But others, like

Power to Kill Ethics in modern medicine are still grounded in a document that is thousands of years old: the Hippocratic Oath. The Hippocratic Oath states, "I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect," (Tyson 1). Clearly, the Hippocratic Oath warns against the practice of physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia. Physician-assisted suicide is generally considered to be

Euthanasia comes from the Greek phrase meaning "good death," ("Euthanasia" 112). The various practices that fall under the general rubric of providing a person with the means for a "good death" include physician-assisted death, also referred to as physician-assisted suicide. Until recently, all forms of euthanasia were illegal in the United States and in most other developed countries but within the past generation, these laws have been liberalized so that

E. The exceptions made for impairment and age would open a Pandora's Box of legal precedence. The Death with Dignity Act and any other forthcoming active euthanasia laws will likely continue to follow the same line of reasoning, i.e. that it is the unimpaired individual who must shoulder the full responsibility of the decisions he or she is making regarding the end of his or her life. That is in