euthanasia, including whether to legalize it or not. Today, euthanasia is one of the most controversial and emotional issues in the medical field because of arguments for and against the practice. It is the practice of ending a life in order for terminal patients to escape incurable diseases and intolerable suffering. Doctors have saved the lives of many patients with the latest discoveries in medical care; however, they are still unable to cure all illnesses, and many patients will suffer as a result. Euthanasia is illegal in almost every state in the union, but some say lawmakers should legalize it, because it releases severe pain from dying, and is really a matter of choice for the patient and their family.
First, it is important to define euthanasia. The word euthanasia actually comes from the Greek language, where it means "good death." Euthanasia is the practice of purposely ending a person's…...
mlaReferences
Alper, Ty. "Anesthetizing the Public Conscience: Lethal Injection and Animal Euthanasia." Fordham Urban Law Journal 35.4 (2008): 817+..
Dowbiggin, Ian. A Merciful End: The Euthanasia Movement in Modern America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Somerville, Margaret. "The Case Against: Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide." Free Inquiry Spring 2003: 33+.
Taylor, Keith. "Was Dr. Kevorkian Right? Why Cling to a Life without Savor?." Free Inquiry Spring 2003: 29+.
Euthanasia Is Illegal
Euthanasia otherwise known as assisted suicide refers to the painless extermination of a patient suffering from terminal illnesses or painful or incurable disease. According to Cavan & Dolan, euthanasia is the practice or act of permitting the death of hopelessly injured or sick individuals in a painless means for the purpose of mercy (Cavan & Dolan 12). The techniques used in euthanasia induce numerous artifacts such as shifts in regional brain chemistry, liver metabolism and epinephrine levels causing death. Advocates of euthanasia trust that sparing a patient needless suffering or pain is a good thing. If an individual is hopelessly hurt or ill with no hope of ever getting well, if such a person is in an unending and unbearable pain and cannot experience the things that make life meaningful, the best option for such patients is euthanasia. Euthanasia raises questions on morals, legal and essence of…...
mlaWork Cited
Baird, R. Caring for the Dying: critical issues at the edge of life. New York: Prometeus Books 2003, pp.117
Cavan, Seasmus, Dolan, Sean. Euthanasia: The Debate over the right to die. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, Oct 1, 2000.
Cohen-Almagor, R. Euthanasia in the Netherlands: The policy and practice of mercy killing. Netherlands: Springer, Aug 3, 2004.
Devettere, Raymond. Practical decision making in health care ethics: Cases and concepts. Georgetown: Georgetown University Press, 2009.
Life and Death: The Life Support Dilemma by Kenneth E. Schemmer M.D
Kenneth Schemmer in his thorough, thought provoking book brings to life the controversial subject of the life support issue. For years, many all over the country have pondered, "What if a person were in some kind of an accident and the physicians told them that they were not going to make it?" And all that he or she could do is just lie there in extreme pain waiting for their life to the end. Or even worse case scenario what if they happened to end up completely brain dead? These debated questions are taken on by Dr. Schemmer in making his point that life support decisions may not necessarily be the decision of the family, the doctor or the patient but by a higher being that gives life and takes life. Schemmer uses these controversial questions in his…...
mlaReferences:
Court backs right to die | terminally ill have right to refuse medical life support. (1984, Dec 28). The San Diego Union, pp. A.1-1.
Ackerman, T. (2005, Mar 27). Life support battle shifts / A decade ago, patients families had to press for 'right to die. Houston Chronicle, pp. 1-B.1.
Allen, P. (2000, Oct 07). Right to die upheld despite new euro law, doctors can end life support rules judge. Daily Mail, pp. 33-33.
Dolan, M. (2001, Aug 10). Justices deal setback to right-to-die movement; health: State court bans removal of life support from conscious patients whose wishes are not clear. Los Angeles Times, pp. A.1-A.1.
Euthanasia
The foremost contentious concern lately has been the issue of granting legal status to the right to die with dignity, or euthanasia. Similar to the issue of death sentence or suicide, euthanasia is contentious as it entails killing an individual through a conscious decision. (The right to a dignified death - need for debate) "Euthanasia" derived from the Greek term implying "good death" is some activity we perform or otherwise which results in, or is planned to result in death, to liberate a person from pain. This is occasionally known as "mercy killing." (Reflections on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide) Giving a legal sanction to euthanasia is a vital referendum upon the social standing of those incapacitated in America nowadays. (Euthanasia: The Disability Perspective on the Right to Die Movement) Euthanasia can be attained either though an intentional process, or by refraining to take an action intentionally. In any one of…...
mlaWorks Cited
Abergavenny, Roger Dobson. (22 February, 2003) "Society should accept that euthanasia is a personal decision, report says." British Medical Journal. 326:416. Retrieved from Accessed on 4 May, 2005http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/326/7386/416/d
"Arguments against Euthanasia: Euthanasia is against the word and will of God." Retrieved from Accessed on 3 May, 2005http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/ethics/sanctity_life/euthagod.shtml
"Arguments against Euthanasia" Retrieved from Accessed on 3 May, 2005http://www.euthanasia.com/argumentsagainsteuthanasia.html
'Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia" Retrieved from Accessed on 3 May, 2005http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?rid=cmed.section.17469
Euthanasia, Should Terminally Ill Patients Be Allowed to End Their Lives Via Assisted Suicide
TEMINALLY ILL PATIENTS BE ALLOWED TO END THEI LIVES VIA ASSISTED SUICIDE
Euthanasia, notably called assisted killing or mercy killing, is perhaps one of the medical prescriptions that have always raised varied and multifaceted arguments, most of which have never reached any solid conclusion. Clinicians are prone to take every necessary step necessary to keep the health of a patient at stable conditions. Nonetheless, there come a time when the patient knows, together with the clinician, that there is a lesser chance of survival. In such situations, health professionals are stuck between assisting the patient to die, notably by using an external means, or letting him or her to fight for life until death, something that might be painful, both to the clinicians, the patients, and even the loved ones. Assisting a patient to die, with or without…...
mlaReference
Weber, W. (2000). Dutch Proposal for Children's Right To Euthanasia Withdrawn. Lancet, 356(9226), 322.
While he did not necessarily appreciate or approve of Dax's wish to die, he was also "not inclined to force upon the patient care he did not wish to receive," (7). Dr. Meier's position seemed overall the most neutral of all involved. He knew that part of the reason why Dax was determined to die was because he had overheard an "off-handed remark" made by a careless surgical resident, (34). Meier went on to apply what he learned through Dax's case to caring for the disabled and dying who, like Dax, often wish to die (206).
Psychiatrist Dr. White was instrumental in helping Dax regain confidence and self-esteem through his ordeal. While he did help Dax wean himself off of sleeping pills and emerge from a deep depression into a life of productivity, Dr. White still did not heed Dax's wishes or "participate in his suicide," (27). Like the other…...
rise of advanced technologies in the medical field, especially those that sustains life, has brought issues in the ethics and morality of those involved in the field of medicine. Most significant to these issues is the practice of Euthanasia on patients diagnosed to have no chance of surviving and regaining life after any treatment has been implemented. In view of the issues on Euthanasia, this paper aims to present a discussion of this medical practice by analyzing the stands and views of Ned Cassem, James Rachel, Sidney Hook, and Leon R. Kass. This paper also aims to explain the meaning of "good death" as mentioned by Ned Cassem.
On many medical books and dictionaries, "euthanasia" or "mercy-killing" is defined as ending a life of a terminally ill patient by ways such as removing life support machines or stopping treatments that somehow prolongs life. The basic reason why euthanasia is performed on…...
mlaBIBLIOGRAPHY
Chung, Ken. On James Rachels and "Active and Passive Euthanasia."
Publish.Uwo.Ca. 28 Dec. 2002. http://publish.uwo.ca/~kchung23/rachels.htm
Hook, Sidney. "In Defense of Voluntary Euthanasia.."
The New York Times (1 Mar. 1987).
The German suffering after the first world war and the humiliation of Germany with other nations gave the Nazis the opportunity to feed hatred of the Jews and at the same time promise that if the People gave in to the Nazi ideology, they would be in the land that would hold them a superior way of life. That the followers of Hitler followed the Ideals as true and that they also created in their own minds the need to eliminate groups of people who disagree like the communists and the Jews was the fundamental cause of the holocaust. Why did it come about? It was argued that while the political climate of the times did not show much promise, Hitler was able to deliver what he promised even if it was based on evil. This gave him ground support. One of the chief supporters of Hitler, and Aman who…...
mlaReferences
Abzug, Robert H. 1985. Inside the Vicious Heart: Americans and the Liberation of Nazi
Concentration Camps. Oxford University Press: New York.
Aroneanu, Eugene; Whissen, Thomas. 1996. Inside the Concentration Camps:
Eyewitness Accounts of Life in Hitler's Death Camps. Praeger: Westport, CT.
Possibly the only exception to the immorality of suicide arises as a function of the philosophical impossibility of violating the fundamental right of the individual - both at law and in moral principle - of refusing medical treatment. Adults who are mentally competent to make decisions for themselves cannot be compelled to accept medical treatment unless their illness presents a health risk to others, such as in the case of infectious tuberculosis (Miller 1984). In that case, it is not suicide specifically that is the issue, since it would be conceptually impossible to allow the (competent) refusal of defining medical procedures deemed "necessary for continued life" first, and second, to require an individual to seek unwanted medical care for some conditions but not others.
However, even if the mentally competent individual may refuse life-saving medical care himself, allowing the same decision made for an incapacitated person by another by proxy allows…...
mlaReferences
Abrams, N., Bruckner, M.D. (1985) Medical Ethics: A Clinical Textbook and Reference for the Health Care Professional. Massachusetts: MIT.
Breitman, R. (1998) Official Secrets: What the Nazis Planned, What the British and Americans Knew. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Dershowitz, a.M. (2002) Shouting Fire: Civil Liberties in a Turbulent Age. New York: Little Brown & Co.
Garner, B.A. (2001) Black's Law Dictionary. St. Paul: West Group.
Terri Schiavo- a Case of Life-Ethics
Mercy Killing, euthanasia, life support, brain damage are some of the hotly debated issues today in medical and legal circles. When is a person really dead? Why should life support system be provided? When can it be removed? Under what circumstances a person can be killed by the medical staff? There questions, as disturbing as they may be, are high pertinent to the case of Theresa Schiavo, the 41-year-old woman who died on March 31st, this year after her feeding tube was removed. (BBC News)
Terri Schiavo, as she is popularly known now, suffered a serious brain injury in a cardiac arrest in 1990 which may have been triggered by her suspected bulimia. She was then married to Michael Schiavo and apparently living a happy life. Terri's parents, obert and Mary Schindler, wanted to keep her alive with the use of a feeding tube. Michael Schiavo…...
mlaReferences
1) Disabled state - special legislation for Terri Schiavo -- 39-year-old woman in vegetative state since 1990 Christian Century Nov 29, 2003
2) Robert Marus, Florida dispute renews life-ethics controversy - News Terri Schiavo Christian Century Nov 15, 2003
3) Excerpts from the Supreme Court decision in Washington v. Glucksberg allowing states to ban doctor-assisted suicides "The State Has an Interest in Preventing Suicide . . . And Treating Its Causes', Washington Post, Friday, June 27, 1997; Page A18
4) "Brain-damaged Terri Schiavo dies" Story from BBC NEWS: Published: 2005/03/31http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/4398131.stm
EUTHANASIA
The word Euthanasia has been the cause of much debate about its legality and whether such a practice is even ethical or not. The anti-argument for this cause has mostly been raised from more controversial background, while the pro argument has come up from the liberal camp. The reason for such ferocity in the debate has been the resultant of the lack of understanding of the real meaning of the world, since mostly its real meaning has been distorted to find definitions that would suit each camp. Therefore the most primary step in this regard than becomes to take into consideration the definition of the word itself.
The dictionary defines the term Euthanasia as "the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals (as persons or domestic animals) in relatively painless way for reasons of mercy" (Euthanasia). However, the general perception of Euthanasia…...
mlaWorks Cited
Definition of Euthanasia. 4th April 2011. 24th September 2011 .
Euthanasia. n.d. 24th September 2011 .
Euthanasia (active and Passive)
A Moral Philosophy Paper
Euthanasia is the practice of ending a person's life for the sole purpose of relieving the person's body from excruciating pain and suffering due to an incurable disease. The term euthanasia is often referred as mercy killing or the 'good death' as derived from the Greek. Euthanasia can be classified into four categories. In active euthanasia, a person's life is terminated by a doctor through a lethal dose of medication. Passive euthanasia implies non-provision of life-sustaining treatment to a patient based on logical reasoning or in other words doing nothing to save a person's life by abstaining to give life saving measures like putting a person on artificial respirator. Simple way of distinguishing active and passive form of euthanasia is a mere difference between act and omission. The other forms include voluntary euthanasia in which a person's consent is obtained for either active or…...
mlaBIBLIOGRAPHY
Article on Introduction, background, laws, prevalence and ethical concerns on Euthanasia, Msn Encarta
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761562836/Euthanasia.html
Euthanasia Should Be Legal, The Guardian Newspaper, 12/9/2004
Euthanasia, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Euthanasia Should e Illegal
Euthanasia is the act of putting to death painlessly or allowing death, as by withholding extreme medical measures, a person or animal suffering from an incurable, often painful, disease or condition (Euthanasia, Infoplease.com). Today, medical advances have made it possible to prolong life in patients with no hope of recovery, and the term negative euthanasia has arisen to classify the practice of withholding or withdrawing extraordinary means (e.g., intravenous feeding, respirators, and artificial kidney machines) to preserve life. Positive euthanasia, on the other hand, has come to refer to actions that actively cause death such as administering a lethal drug.
Much debate has arisen in the United States among physicians, religious leaders, lawyers, and the general public over euthanasia (Euthanasia, Infoplease.com). Pro-euthanasia societies were founded in 1935 in England and 1938 in the United States. The Hemlock Society is one group that has pressed for right-to-die legislation…...
mlaBibliography
Active Euthenasia - A Kantian Perspective." PlanetPapers. 07 Dec. 2003. http://www.*****/Assets/1710.php.
Bopp, James, and Coleson, Richard. "The Constitutional Case Against Permitting Physician-Assisted Suicide for Competent Adults with "Terminal Conditions." Oregon Right to Life. 07 Dec. 2003. http://www.ortl.org/suicide/constitutional_case_2.html.
Burke, J. Balch and O'Steen, David N.. "Why We Shouldn't Legalize Assisting Suicide." National Right to Life Committee. 08 Dec. 2003. http://www.nrlc.org/euthanasia/asisuid4.html.
Chastain, Jane. (2003, Sept. 4). "Another 9-11 Date With Death." WorldNetDaily.com. 08 Dec. 2003. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34416 .
Collaborative Learning Community -- Analysis of an Ethical Dilemma
Collaborative Learning Community: Analysis of an Ethical Dilemma
Euthanasia and related ethical implications
Euthanasia, referred to as "mercy killing" in common parlance, is the action of ending the life of an individual suffering from painful and extended injury or illness (Center for Health Ethics, 2011). Euthanasia implies that another individual, excluding the patient carries out an action with the intention of ending the patient's life, for instance, a lethal dose of medicine being injected into the patient. It might be voluntary if the patient approves of it, involuntary if the patient says no to it, or even non-voluntary if the patient is unable to approve of it. In euthanasia, an individual makes the means of death available in addition to acting as death's direct agent (American Nurses Association, 2013).
Euthanasia is the act of putting the life of a patient to an end to rid…...
mlaReferences
American Nurses Association . (2001). Code of Ethics for Nurses with interpretive statements. Silver Spring, MD: American Nurses Publishing.
American Nurses Association. (2013). Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide, and Aid in Dying. ANA Center for Ethics and Human Rights.
Bartels, L., & Otlowski, M. (2010). A right to die? Euthanasia and the law in Australia. J Law Med, 532-55.
Bulow, H., Sprung, C., Reinhart, K., Prayag, S., Du, B., & Armaganidis, A. (2008). The world's major religions' points-of-view on end-of-life decisions in the intensive care unit. Intensive Care Med, 423-30.
euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide on ReligiousTolerance.org, most people in North America die "a bad death," one characterized by pain, being unable to participate in their medical treatment program, or after spending over ten days in intensive care. A prevailing belief that any sign of life is preferable to death fuels arguments against the practice of voluntary euthanasia, distinguished from involuntary euthanasia in that the suicide is requested directly by the person in question. Euthanasia is one of the most controversial subjects in medial ethics today. On one side of the argument, organizations like the Hemlock Society have pushed for legislation that permits physician-assisted suicide (PAS). These efforts have met with a degree of success in the United States; in 1994 Oregon passed the Death with Dignity Act allowing PAS. However, there is even a distinction between voluntary euthanasia and PAS: with PAS, the physician simply provides the means with…...
mlaWorks Cited
Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide: Introduction." Religious Tolerance.org. http://www.religioustolerance.org/euth1.htm .
Gula, Richard. "Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide: Killing or Caring?" Christian Century. 5 May 1999. Online at Find Articles.com. http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1058/14_116/54588537/p1/article.jhtml?term=euthanasia .
Leutwyler, Kristen. "In Cases of Euthanasia, Men Most Often Kill Women." Scientific American. 24 Sept 2001. Online at http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000B5030-819D-1C61-B882809EC588ED9F&catID=1 .
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