Euthanasia in the United States
Euthanasia for the Elderly in the United States
Hannah Pate
An issue facing much of today’s elderly and terminally ill populations is that of euthanasia and physician assisted suicide. Several countries, most notably the Netherlands, has legalized euthanasia and physician assisted suicide leading to what is now referred to as “death tourism”. People from across the world are traveling to place with legalized euthanasia, like the Netherlands, in order to end their lives through assisted suicide. Some political groups are now proposing that there should be a “right to die” so that those who are experiencing a painful terminal illness or debilitating condition could chose to end their life with assistance from a physician. In the past thirty years several court cases have arisen when patients requested active or passive euthanasia to be performed [8]. This, along with many other issues heavily affecting the elderly, are often ignored or forgotten by a media and society designed for the young and middle aged.
Details
In the realm of assisted suicide, there are three forms of euthanasia and the difference between these forms often is the deciding factor when a person resolves whether to support euthanasia or not. Euthanasia itself can be broken up into two different types, active euthanasia and passive euthanasia. Passive euthanasia is the most commonly accepted form. This is the form of euthanasia practiced when a physician, next-of-kin, or the patient themself decides to take a patient off of life support, thus allowing whatever disease or illness the patient has to take its course. This form of euthanasia is often seen through living wills. Active euthanasia on the other hand, in steeped in controversy due to the physician or other assistant actively killing the patient. Most often this comes in the form of an overdose of some sort of medicine. A subcategory of active euthanasia is physician assisted suicide. Physician assisted suicide (PAS) differs
Hannah Pate
An issue facing much of today’s elderly and terminally ill populations is that of euthanasia and physician assisted suicide. Several countries, most notably the Netherlands, has legalized euthanasia and physician assisted suicide leading to what is now referred to as “death tourism”. People from across the world are traveling to place with legalized euthanasia, like the Netherlands, in order to end their lives through assisted suicide. Some political groups are now proposing that there should be a “right to die” so that those who are experiencing a painful terminal illness or debilitating condition could chose to end their life with assistance from a physician. In the past thirty years several court cases have arisen when patients requested active or passive euthanasia to be performed [8]. This, along with many other issues heavily affecting the elderly, are often ignored or forgotten by a media and society designed for the young and middle aged.
Details
In the realm of assisted suicide, there are three forms of euthanasia and the difference between these forms often is the deciding factor when a person resolves whether to support euthanasia or not. Euthanasia itself can be broken up into two different types, active euthanasia and passive euthanasia. Passive euthanasia is the most commonly accepted form. This is the form of euthanasia practiced when a physician, next-of-kin, or the patient themself decides to take a patient off of life support, thus allowing whatever disease or illness the patient has to take its course. This form of euthanasia is often seen through living wills. Active euthanasia on the other hand, in steeped in controversy due to the physician or other assistant actively killing the patient. Most often this comes in the form of an overdose of some sort of medicine. A subcategory of active euthanasia is physician assisted suicide. Physician assisted suicide (PAS) differs
Bibliography: 1. Emanuel, E. J. (1994). The History of Euthanasia Debates in the United States and Britain. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2. Meier, D. E., Emmons, C., Wallenstein, S., Quill, T., Morrison, R. S., and Cassel, C. K. (1998). A National Survey of Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine. 3. Emanuel, E. J. (2002). Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide A Review of the Empirical Data From the United States. Archives of Internal Medicine. 4. Himchak, M. V. (1997). Contributing Factors That Influence the Elderly in Their Attitudes Toward Euthanasia. Journal of Religious Gerontology. 5. Kissane, D. W. and Kelly, B. J. (2000). Demoralisation, depression and desire for death: problems with the Dutch guidelines for euthanasia of the mentally ill. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. 6. Landmark Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide Legal Cases. (2013). ProCon.org. Retrieved Feb. 10th, 2013. From http://euthanasia.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000131 7. History of Euthanasia Retrieved. (n.d). Euthanasia.com. Retrieved Feb. 10th, 2013. From http://www.euthanasia.com/historyeuthanasia.html 8. A General History of Euthanasia. (n.d.). Suicide and the Elderly. Retrieved Feb. 12th, 2013. From http://www.life.org.nz/euthanasia/abouteuthanasia/history-euthanasia1/Default.htm