Preview

Death and Euthanasia

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1974 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Death and Euthanasia
Euthanasia

Mark T. Maxwell

Abstract

This paper will define Euthanasia and assisted suicide. Euthanasia is often confused with and associated with assisted suicide, definitions of the two are required. Two perspectives shall be presented in this paper. The first perspective will favor euthanasia or the "right to die," the second perspective will favor antieuthanasia, or the "right to live". Each perspective shall endeavor to clarify the legal, moral and ethical ramifications or aspects of euthanasia. Thesis Statement

Euthanasia, also mercy killing, is the practice of ending a life so as to release an individual from an incurable disease or intolerable suffering.
Euthanasia is a merciful means to and end of long-term suffering. Euthanasia is a relatively new dilemma for the United States and has gained a bad reputation from negative media hype surrounding assisted suicides. Euthanasia has a purpose and should be evaluated as humanely filling a void created by our sometimes inhumane modern society.

Antithesis Statement

Euthanasia is nothing less than cold-blooded killing. Euthanasia cheapens life, even more so than the very divisive issue of abortion. Euthanasia is morally and ethically wrong and should be banned in these United States. Modern medicine has evolved by leaps and bounds recently, euthanasia resets these medical advances back by years and reduces today's Medical Doctors to administrators of death.

Euthanasia defined

The term Euthanasia is used generally to refer to an easy or painless death. Voluntary euthanasia involves a request by the dying patient or that person's legal representative. Passive or negative euthanasia involves not doing something to prevent death—that is, allowing someone to die; active or positive euthanasia involves taking deliberate action to cause a death. Euthanasia is often mistaken or associated with for assisted suicide, a distant cousin of euthanasia, in which a person wishes to commit suicide but

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Minor Detail 4: He did the right thing because Curley was going to let Lennie suffer by letting him bleed to death but George sis the right thing by getting to Lennie and sending him off thinking about a good happy life and killed him peacefully.…

    • 273 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    <br>Euthanasia is often confused with physician-assisted suicide. Euthanasia is when one person does something that directly kills another. For example, a doctor gives a lethal injection to a patient. In assisted suicide, a non-suicidal person knowingly and intentionally provides the means or acts in some way to help a suicidal person kill himself or herself. For example, a doctor writes a prescription for poison, or someone hooks up a face mask and tubing to a canister of carbon monoxide and then instructs the suicidal person on how to push a lever so that she'll be gassed to death. For all practical purposes, any distinction between euthanasia and assisted suicide has been abandoned today.…

    • 2774 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Euthanasia means “good death” but today the term is deemed as a merciful action to rid someone of suffering. In many cases we have seen terminally ill patients euthanized active or passive, yet for the sake of my essay I will discuss active euthanasia. End of life issues is a topic many families are faced with everyday more than one likes to imagine; however, imagine that you were a significant other who has a loved one in the hospital suffering from a terminal illness and their pain is unbearable that your loved one has decided to end his life and the subject of euthanasia comes up. What would you do? The…

    • 1769 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Research Paper on Euthanasia

    • 2719 Words
    • 11 Pages

    One of the most hotly debated ethical issue of our time is one of Euthanasia. Euthanasia comes from the Greek words “Eu”, meaning well or easy, and “Thanatos”, meaning death. In modern terms it is the intentional premature termination of another’s life by direct intervention or by withholding care.[1] Within that it can be either voluntary (expressed or implied consent), or involuntary. The two sides of this debate are the rights of an individual to decide when he or she is to die, or the sanctity of life and the states responsibility to protect people.…

    • 2719 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Euthanasia is another term for mercy killing. It is said to be the act of putting to death painlessly a person suffering from such incurable or painful disease. Meanwhile, in the 21st century it has been argued that euthanasia is one of the famous social concerns nowadays. Moreover, it is usually done by doctors to their patients who are terminally ill. Although euthanasia ends the suffering of the patients, it can damage the teachings of some religions, principle of medical ethics, and the patients trust.…

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Majority of people all around the world want to have a choice before a death and they are in favor of legalization of euthanasia and physical-assisted suicide.…

    • 2846 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Euthanasia has more advantages than disadvantages and actually helps patients and families in numerous ways: it stops the patient from suffering from horrible, chronic diseases and puts an end to their horrific pain. Euthanasia…

    • 964 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Should physicians be granted the power to intentionally end the lives of their patients? Recent proposals to legalize physician-assisted suicide have raised this question and triggered intense legal, medical and social debate. For some individuals, the debate is fueled by their fear that medical technology may someday keep them alive past the time of natural death. However, this concern is unfounded for mentally competent adults who have a legal right to refuse or stop any medical treatment. It is also important to recognize that today's health care climate lends itself more to undertreatment than overtreatment.…

    • 289 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Physician-assisted death is the act of intentionally providing medical patients with the measures to be able to commit suicide. The requirements behind this medical procedure usually include a patient who is terminally ill and consenting to the procedure. The method to perform this procedure is through a lethal dosage of drugs prescribed by a physician. However, to individuals in the United States, the procedure is constantly borderlining on whether it can be classified as relief from dying or murder.…

    • 418 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    If you were told you had a terminally ill disease and only had one more year to live, filled with suffering, what would you chose to do? This question leads us to the sensitive and controversial topic of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. Euthanasia can simply be defined as physician-assisted death for terminally ill patients. This issue has stirred debates that have drawn attention to the complex issues concerning the ethical implications of end-of-life care. Supporters of euthanasia argue that they seek only to prevent unnecessary suffering while the critics maintain that it is unethical to end an individual’s life. However, many public opinions have reported that over 80% of the general population support amendments in the law to…

    • 889 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Euthanasia Ethical Dilemma

    • 2102 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Euthanasia is a social issue in today’s world because not only does it affect the lives of those who are terminally ill and/or comatose, and the physicians who have been entrusted with their care, but it also affects the patient’s ability to have control over their own life, whether they are aware of this decision or not, which is one of the reasons why euthanasia has become such a controversial issue around the globe. Caddell and Newton (1995) define euthanasia as “any treatment initiated by a physician with the intent of hastening the death of another human being who is terminally ill and in severe pain or distress with the motive of relieving that person from great suffering” (p. 1,672). Even though the concept of great…

    • 2102 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    A hotly debated issue regarding the quality of life for terminally ill patients revolves around the morality and legal implications of euthanasia, or physician assisted suicide which is defined as the painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease, or in an irreversible coma. There are already a multitude of laws in place regulating physician assisted suicide in some states and countries, as well as laws preventing the practice. But despite these preventative laws physician assisted suicide remains an underground practice to relieve patient suffering. In lieu of the supposed moral issues associated with physician assisted suicide,…

    • 3211 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The debate over Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide is becoming more and more complicated as doctors develop a better understanding for its purpose and usefulness. Euthanasia is a Greek term meaning “good death” and it can be described as a killing of a patient who chooses to take this course in action by applying, administrating, and undergoing a procedure to end their life. Euthanasia is prescribed when a patient is in intense pain or suffering and is ready to end their life in a safe and logical way with the help of a doctor. It is a simple procedure with a choice of either drug administration or a lethal injection. The injection is much faster than the drugs, but both work in the same way. The significance of euthanasia is to be able…

    • 1193 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Assissted Suicide

    • 2038 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Assisted suicide is where a PAD (Physician aid-in-dying) helps an individual to bring about his or her death by providing medication or equipment while euthanasia means that patient has to give consent (based on requirements) to the physician and he or she then terminates the life of the patient.…

    • 2038 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Assisted suicide and euthanasia are distinguished by who is acting to end the life and what is the intention of ending the life. Assisted suicide is when an individual deliberately chooses to end their own life, differentiated from the general act of suicide by the fact that a second individual is deliberately cooperating to provide the means. It is important to emphasize that the person herself is taking the action to end her life, whether the means are by firearm, injection, or medication. This means that not only is no one else’s finger on the trigger, but also assumes that no one has forced the person to take this action. Thus, the individual agency is a defining…

    • 1907 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays