Erica Watson
Mr. Bono
English 6-7
6 December 2010
Euthanasia in the 1930’s Euthanasia: one of the biggest health controversies talked about for decades always has people judging and debating. Many people have different opinions and beliefs on the topic. From my knowledge, I understand that euthanasia is “the action of killing an individual for reasons considered to be Merciful” (Studyworld.com). Too many questions come to mind when I think of euthanasia. When do you decide to kill the patient? Does the patient agree to this? Is euthanasia legal? In the research that I did, I quickly educated myself on this topic. In the 1930’s many people didn’t know how to grasp the thought of euthanasia. Not too many were educated on it and just considered it suicide. In the United States, euthanasia has never officially been legal. “Medical practitioners opposed the idea of euthanasia and strongly claimed it to be illegal” (Buzzle.com). But, around this time period, the Nazi’s believed in involuntary euthanasia. They were determined to “eliminate the unhealthy members of society through euthanasia” (caae.phil.cmu.edu). Although euthanasia is illegal; “Physician aid-in-dying (PAD) is legal in the states of Washington, Oregon and Montana” (wikipedia.org). The difference between the two is that “Euthanasia entails the physician or another third party administering the medication, whereas PAD requires the patient to self-administer the medication and to determine whether and when to do this” (wikipedia.org).Overall, euthanasia is illegal, but certain types are legal in certain states. There are different types of euthanasia and each has its own ways of killing the ill patient. The first type is voluntary euthanasia. This is done at the patients request and the doctors inject them with lethal substance. On the other hand, is