...Euthanasia should be legalized Euthanasia has always been a controversial issue not only in America but Internationally. Is it moral? Ethical? And should it be legalized? Before answering any of these questions, one perhaps needs to get some straight facts about Euthanasia or “Assisted Suicide”. “Euthanasia: Euthanasia is the intentional killing by act or omission of a dependent human being for his or her alleged benefit. Voluntary euthanasia: When the person who is killed has requested to be killed. Non-voluntary: When the person who is killed made no request and gave no consent. Involuntary euthanasia: When the person who is killed made an expressed wish to the contrary. Assisted suicide: Someone provides an individual with the information, guidance, and means to take his or her own life with the intention that they will be used for this purpose. When it is a doctor who helps another person to kill themselves it is called "physician assisted suicide." Euthanasia by Action: Intentionally causing a person's death by performing an action such as by giving a lethal injection.. Euthanasia by Omission: Intentionally causing death by not providing necessary and ordinary (usual and customary) care or food and water.” (http://www.nrlc.org) Physician assisted suicide might sound horribly to a normal person with no knowledge about the practice itself. There are many little factors that must be count into consideration when such operations are performed. Voluntary vs. Involuntary...
Words: 1633 - Pages: 7
...Paper Euthanasia Revisited: The Aruna Shanbaug Verdict *Arsalaan. F. Rashid, **Balbir Kaur, ***O.P. Aggarwal Abstract Euthanasia and its procedure have long history of locking horns as a vexed issue with laws of countries across the world. Every human being of adult years and sound mind has a right to determine what shall be done with his/her own body. It is unlawful to administer treatment to an adult who is conscious and of sound mind, without his consent. In patients with Permanently Vegetative State (PVS) and no hope of improvement, the distinction between refusing life saving medical treatment (passive euthanasia) and giving lethal medication is logical, rational, and well established. It is ultimately for the Court to decide, as parens patriae, as to what is in the best interest of the patient. An erroneous decision not to terminate results in maintenance of the status quo; the possibility of subsequent developments such as advancements in medical science, the discovery of new evidence regarding the patient’s intent, changes in the law, or simply the unexpected death of the patient despite the administration of lifesustaining treatment, at least create the potential that a wrong decision will eventually be corrected or its impact mitigated. Key Words: Consent, Permanent Vegetative State, Passive Euthanasia, Parens patriae Introduction: Euthanasia is the intentional premature termination of another person’s life either by direct intervention (active euthanasia) or...
Words: 3830 - Pages: 16
...P393 26 June 2013 Put Out to Pasture: The Problem with Euthanasia I have decided to write my paper on Euthanasia as the topic elicits all types of opinions and conversion on the matter. It is definitely a hot button topic when it comes to Ethical dilemmas, theories, principles, and how society should precede with this in application of law and legislation. I believe that allowing for Euthanasia globally and nationally will begin to further erode the very moral and ethical fiber that separates man from animal. I further support my stand with the example of abortion, and even though opinion hasn’t changed much in the 40 years since Roe vs. Wade allowed for abortion to take place, still millions of babies have been killed despite to negative opinions about it. My hypothesis on this issue is that if nationally legalized it would lead to an untold amount of elderly, handicapped, ill, poor, and lonely people vulnerable to being put to death against their wishes and before their time. The aim of this paper it too show that indeed legalizing “Euthanasia” or “Patient Assisted Suicide” would indeed lead us down the “slippery slope. This first step for me in this paper would be to talk about the theories and principles behind not being pro-euthanasia. There are a number of ethical principles that are deontological in nature, are part of the natural moral law, and relevant to the kinds of dilemmas that occur in euthanasia cases.Four of them are as follows: 1. The Principle of Autonomy...
Words: 3593 - Pages: 15
...Moral Issue about Euthanasia Reflection Euthanasia is defined as the practice of ending a life prematurely in order to end pain and suffering. The process is also sometimes called Mercy Killing. Euthanasia can fall into several categories. Voluntary Euthanasia is carried out with the permission of the person whose life is taken. Involuntary euthanasia is carried out without permission, such as in the case of a criminal execution. The moral and social questions surrounding these practices are the most active fields of research in Bioethics today. Many Supreme Court cases, such as Gonzales v. Oregon and Baxter vs. Montana, also surround this issue. Voluntary euthanasia is typically performed when a person is suffering from a terminal illness and is in great pain. When the patient performs this procedure with the help of a doctor, the term assisted suicide is often used. It is also legal in the state of Oregon, Washington and Montana. Passive euthanasia is carried out by terminating a medication that is keeping a patient alive or not performing a life-saving procedure. Active euthanasia involves the administration of a lethal drug or otherwise actively ending the life. These two types of procedures carry different moral and social issues. Euthanasia Controversy My opinion or point of view about euthanasia,There is a lot of controversy surrounding the issue and whether or not it should be legal. From a legal standpoint, the Encyclopedia of American Law categorizes mercy killing as...
Words: 577 - Pages: 3
...Euthanasia is a word coined from the Greek language, Eu meaning good or noble; Thanatos meaning death, in the seventeenth century by Francis Bacon to refer to an easy, painless, happy death. (Singer) Within euthanasia, there are two types. Active and passive. Active euthanasia occurs when a medical professional or another person deliberately does something to cause the death of a patient. Passive euthanasia occurs when a medical professional either stops doing something that is keeping a patient alive or they don’t do something necessary to keep a patient alive. Like switching off life support or disconnecting a feeding tube. A term that is commonly confused, but is similar to euthanasia, is physician assisted suicide. Although the results and reasoning’s behind each type of death is the same, they differ in the way that the death is administered. In euthanasia, the physician performs the intervention. Usually with a lethal dose of a powerful drug such as morphine or Pentobarbital. During physician assisted suicide, the drug, and means of delivery, are given to the patient by the physician. However, the patient accomplishes the act of injection. Leading to his or her own death (A General History Of Euthanasia) The first time euthanasia was reported on record was around 400BC by Suetonius, a Roman historian, while describing the death of Augustus Caesar. Although the actions of an easy, painless death have been used on hopeless patients since ancient times, these acts have been...
Words: 3117 - Pages: 13
...academicjournals.org/INGOJ ISSN 1993–8225 © 2008 Academic Journals Article Euthanasia – A dignified end of life! Vaibhav Goel Faculty of Law Addis Ababa University Addis Ababa Ethiopia. E-mail: vaibhav_hnlu@yahoo.co.in. Accepted 27, October 2008 Survival is undoubtedly valuable but some time and in certain condition life becomes painful and impossible or unbearable, in that stage survilance seems, like a curse or abuse. Euthanasia – a new word for masses become common about four years back in the month of December 2004 because of Venkatesh plea for granting him right to die. Euthanasia is nothing else but a permit or license to the medical professional for ending the life of a person in question. No doubt if it will be permitted in laws, may be the biggest threat to the creature. In fact the concept is debatable; here the key question is “What should be the ingredients of law which would legalize Euthanasia?” Hence the purpose of writing this paper is to examine the questions pertaining to Euthanasia, especially in the light of traditional perspective besides legal dimensions of MTP and to suggest legal aspects of the same to make life with dignity even at the time of end. In addition the second key question may be that if it permitted weather it will be on the recommendation of the doctors or in the consent of the relative of the Patient? Keywords: Euthanasia, PAS, Suicide, Religions on Suicide Right to Die, Mercy Killing, MTP INTRODUCTION Antipathy is not a word but it...
Words: 6788 - Pages: 28
...Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide “This is not about a matter of life versus death, but about the timing and manner of an inevitable death.” -Unknown. Active voluntary euthanasia is described as mercy killing at the patient’s request. Physician-assisted suicide is described as the killing of a person by the person’s own hand with the help of a physician (Lewis 264). Generally, the law forbids active euthanasia and the medical profession is officially opposed to it. In the United States, physician-assisted suicide is legal in only four states- Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Vermont (Lewis 265). Death has become more difficult to define and the conventional notion of death seems to be inadequate. To overcome the traditional drawbacks of the traditional definition of death, alternative definitions have been suggested. According to the whole-brain definition of death, an individual is dead when all brain function permanently stops. The higher brain definition of death says that an individual is dead when higher brain functions—those that give rise to consciousness—permanently stop (Lewis 266-267). I believe when faced with certain undignified death, one should get to choose how they wish to die. For example: Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old with terminal brain cancer and less than six months left to live, who wanted to die on her own terms wrote the following: “When my suffering becomes too great, I can say to all those I love, ‘I love you; come by...
Words: 1159 - Pages: 5
...Should Physician Assisted Suicide Be Legalized? Julia Schulenburg PHI103 Informal Logic Professor Robert Paixao September 2, 2013 Should Physician Assisted Suicide be Legalized? In today’s society there are many so many controversial issues one of the biggest being Patient Assisted Suicide, or PAS. PAS is defined as: “suicide by a patient facilitated by means or information (as a drug prescription or indication of the lethal dosage) provided by a physician who is aware of how the patient intends to use such means or information.” Merriam-Webster Dictionary (n.d.). Let us not get PAS confused with Euthanasia, this is different, to be euthanized is when the doctor himself physically administers the lethal dosage into the patient causing their death. PAS is just the doctor prescribing the drugs for the patient to give to themselves to cause them to die. There are people who are in favor of allowing a doctor to prescribe a lethal dose of medication or machinery for the patient to administer to themselves to end their own life due having a terminal illness. Then there are those who greatly oppose it, some being doctors, moralists, the general public, as well as some private groups. They claim physician assisted suicide to be immoral, ethically wrong, against religious beliefs, and unnecessary with proper palliative care. While PAS is a controversial topic in modern day society, it originally stemmed from ancient civilizations, which defended the rights of citizens to...
Words: 2076 - Pages: 9
...6th Amendment. The Court has dealt with cases either philosophically, constitutionally, or both. “ The Supreme Court is distinctly American in concept and function, as Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes observed. Few other courts in the world have the same authority of constitutional interpretation and non have exercised it for as long or with much influences.” (www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/) One of the biggest delimas the court has faced is the original intent of the Constitution is in such cases as Marbury vs Madison 5 US 137 ( U.S. Supreme Court, 1803 ), and Griswold v. Connecticut 381 U.S. 479 ( U.S. Supreme Court, 1965 ), were originalist argued that courts cannot apply a general right to privacy in a politically neutral manner without protecting all sorts of illegal activities that are done in privacy, such as prostitution. In this paper I will attempt to show how the Court have dealt with the principle of Right to Privacy, active and passive euthanasia, and sanctity of life. I will also attempt to show how the court has dealt with stated principles philosophically and constitutionally. The first principle I will attempt to show how the court dealt with philosophically and constitutionally is the Right to Privacy. The U.S. Constitution contains no wording of the right to privacy. The basic fundamental of the right to privacy is implied rights. Implied or unemumerated rights by definition are rights that the courts have found to exist even though they are not expressly...
Words: 2368 - Pages: 10
...THE LAW ON ASSISTED SUICIDE On July 26, 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld decisions in New York and Washington state that criminalized assisted suicide. These decisions overturned rulings in the 2nd and 9th Circuit Courts of Appeal which struck down state statutes banning physician-assisted suicide. Those courts had found that the statutes, which prohibited doctors from prescribing lethal medication to competent, terminally ill adults, violated the 14th Amendment. In striking the appellate decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court found that there was no constitutional "right to die," but left it to individual states to enact legislation permitting or prohibiting physician-assisted suicide. (The full text of these decisions, plus reports and commentary, can be found at the Washinton Post web site.) As of April 1999, physician-assisted suicide is illegal in all but a handful of states. Over thirty states have enacted statutes prohibiting assisted suicide, and of those that do not have statutes, a number of them arguably prohibit it through common law. In Michigan, Jack Kevorkian was initially charged with violating the state statute, in addition to first-degree murder and delivering a controlled substance without a license. The assisted suicide charge was dropped, however, and he was eventually convicted of second degree murder and delivering a controlled substance without a license. Only one state, Oregon, has legalized assisted suicide. The Oregon statute...
Words: 13101 - Pages: 53
... ...……PETITIONER Vs. UNION OF ZINGARO ……...RESPONDENT SUBMITTED IN THE REGISTRY OF THE RESPECTIVE COURT. Memorial on behalf of the Respondent. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abbreviations…………………………………………………….3 List of Authorities………………………………………………...4 Statement of Jurisdiction…………………………………………6 Statement of Facts………………………………………………..7 Questions Presented……………………………………………...8 Summary of Arguments…………………………………………..9 Arguments Advanced…………………………………………….10 Prayers……………………………………………………………24 ABBREVIATIONS Hon’ble Honorable Art. Article AIR All Indian Reporter SC Supreme Court Vs. Versus AIMS Araval Institute of Medical Sciences IPC Indian Penal Code i.e. That is Sec. Section PVS Permanent Vegetative State U.S. United States IMC Indian Medical Council BMA British Medical Association KEM King Edward Medical LIST OF AUTHORITIES NO. | CASE LAWS | 1. | Aruna Ramchandra Shanbaug vs Union Of India & Ors. on 7 March, 2011 ; WRIT PETITION (CRIMINAL) NO. 115 OF 2009 | 2. | Mr. Sanjay Mutha S/O Prem Raj Mutha vs Dr. Mrs. Jayasree Desai, Dr. ... on 8 June, 2007;...
Words: 4030 - Pages: 17
...EUTHANASIA- The “Right” to Die ABSTRACT Euthanasia is one of those Taboo topics that individuals try to distance themselves from due to the fact that it’s a sensitive issue. Most individuals try to take a politically correct stand without evaluating the impact it has on the aggrieved party’s life. Euthanasia in itself may seem a simple issue at the first instance, but by probing deep into the issue we are made to ponder a lot about not only its ethical aspects but also the stakes involved in exercising Euthanasia as a fundamental right of an individual. The dilemma in this issue is a lot more complicated if we were to compare it to other conventional ethical dilemmas because both the stands seem morally right, but there’s a legal perspective which opposes one school of thought and supports the other. Is an individual allowed to determine his death if survival is more of a formality? If so what is the basis of qualifying a case to be a suitable contender for euthanasia? Is the judiciary ignoring this since Euthanasia is an issue faced by a minority? SOME FAMOUS VOICES ON EUTHNASIA: 1. Mr. Ravi B Naik, former High Court Judge and Senior Advocate: (deccanherald.com) “When it is not possible for man to give life, who is he to take it away? We should leave death in the hands of God who gave life. There is no law that allows killing by force till a man dies naturally, nor should there be one. In a situation where it is ‘impossible to live’, people die naturally. When they don’t...
Words: 4456 - Pages: 18
...Physician-Assisted Suicide Must Be Legalized Sheryl Tello GEN 499 Prof. David Ward March 14, 2014 Physician-Assisted Suicide Must Be Legalized Imagine that you just received a phone call from your physician’s nurse and she told you that the doctor wants to see you right away. When you ask her what is the problem; she tells you that it would be best if you came into the office as soon as possible. You tell her that there is no way that you can come in until next week; she asks if you can hold for a minute while she relays the message to your doctor, and the next thing you know your physician is on the phone and tells you that he wants to see you today. You try to rationalize everything that your physician could possibly tell you. Then you tell yourself that it cannot be too bad because you have always taken good care of your body, you eat right, you get plenty of exercise, and you see your doctor once a year. At the doctor’s office, the doctor informs you that there is no easy way of telling you that a large amount of cancer cells have been found in your blood work. As you try to speak, he continues to inform you that the cancer cells have completely taken over your blood and have migrated to your vital organs. As you try to speak again, he interrupts you one more time, however, this time it is to deliver the final blow; you only have six weeks left to live, which you will surely spend in extreme pain and unremitting suffering as your body goes into complete organ...
Words: 4650 - Pages: 19
...Vincent Coughlin PATHE 200 Final Project Spring/15 RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY IN MEDICINE THESIS STATEMENT: Patients with multiple religious beliefs are treated everyday by emergency care workers which creates a void in respect towards the patient and their beliefs if the proper training and knowledge are lacking. INTRODUCTION When the subject of religion and spirituality come up in conversation in the governmental arena most people will argue that they are both on separate planes and should remain that way. But when people were asked if there is a place for religion in the medical field, the majority of those asked will say that they would prefer their physicians inquire about their individual faith and beliefs. In fact, polls indicate that the U.S. Population is highly religious; that most people believe in Heaven and hell. The same people also believe in the healing power of prayer and the capacity of faith to aid in the recovery from disease (N.E.J.O.M. 342). Religion and Spirituality have become an intricate part of patient care in the last 20 plus years. Religion is understood as a set of beliefs, rituals and practices usually embodied within an institution or an organization. Religion is more generalized and all-inclusive. Spirituality is more defined and specific to each individuals Religion. Spirituality is thought of as a search for what is sacred in life, one’s deepest values, along with a relationship with God...
Words: 5942 - Pages: 24
...2 April 2014 Rhetorical Analysis: Euthanasia Particular Analysis There are three key audiences of the text for William F. May's “Rising to the Occasion of Our Death.” The first audience, in this case, would be legislative organizations or lawmakers who have researched and studied similar cases regarding euthanasia. Since May was as an ethics professor at Southern Methodist University, his tone is decidedly intellectual. An uneducated individual would find it more difficult to read his essay; for example, in declarations such as “Advocates of active euthanasia appeal to the principle of patient autonomy,” May's syntax and tone is formal, informative, and utilizes heavy technical jargon (May 662). In other words, it is authoritative, and enables the audience to view him as a credible source due to his syntactical confidence. Other organizations, lobbyists, or lawmakers who are researching evidence on euthanasia would certainly benefit from reading his expert opinion on the matter. Moreover, his desire to develop a “judicious, regulated policy” is a certain acknowledgement that he is attempting to legally call for regulations on euthanasia (May 662). The second audience that May is appealing to are conservative Christians, who are distinctively pro-life. As his article was originally published in well-circulated The Christian Century magazine, addressing this audience exposes members of May's audience who are unfamiliar with euthanasia to its technicalities by debating...
Words: 3937 - Pages: 16
