Right to Die, or Duty to Die?
The term euthanasia, given to us from the Greek was derived from the words eu meaning good and thanatos meaning death giving us the meaning “good death” or “gentle and easy death”. In ancient Greece and Rome, before the coming of Christianity, infanticide (the crime of killing a child within a year of birth), active euthanasia, and suicide were practiced. Many ancient Greeks and Romans had no sound teaching of the value of human life, and pagan physicians likely performed frequent abortions as well as both voluntary and involuntary mercy killings. Although the Hippocratic Oath prohibited doctors from giving deadly drugs to anybody, not even if when asked for, or from suggesting such a course of action, few ancient …show more content…
Euthanasia should not be considered a crime and should be legalized because it ends the pain and suffering of a patient, alternate forms of euthanasia is being practiced, and it persons right on …show more content…
In the nineteenth century, English philosophers Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill came up with a theory known as utilitarianism, which states that our only job in life is to be happy; therefore an individual should choose courses of action that will increase happiness and minimize unhappiness for the greatest number of people. The utilitarian approach would argue in favor of euthanasia that if patient is suffering it is only logically correct to end the suffering of the patient as well as to those who may be affected. The problem with utilitarianism is that it focuses on the consequences rather than the decision making process. For example if an individual is giving pleasure by doing something unjust and is not caught doing so, no suffering would occur and the individual’s pleasure would be seen as just. Yet, regardless of the flaws in utilitarianism, most people would agree with other values that it represents such as individual rights and freedom. Not giving a person the right to end their life denies them those values. Within the case of physician-assisted suicide (PAS), the utilitarian approach might argue that once a patient is terminally ill keeping the patient alive plainly to die slowly and painfully; suffering is greatly increased for family and loved ones. Rather than seeing the radical approach to euthanasia and killing all of those who are
The term euthanasia, given to us from the Greek was derived from the words eu meaning good and thanatos meaning death giving us the meaning “good death” or “gentle and easy death”. In ancient Greece and Rome, before the coming of Christianity, infanticide (the crime of killing a child within a year of birth), active euthanasia, and suicide were practiced. Many ancient Greeks and Romans had no sound teaching of the value of human life, and pagan physicians likely performed frequent abortions as well as both voluntary and involuntary mercy killings. Although the Hippocratic Oath prohibited doctors from giving deadly drugs to anybody, not even if when asked for, or from suggesting such a course of action, few ancient …show more content…
Euthanasia should not be considered a crime and should be legalized because it ends the pain and suffering of a patient, alternate forms of euthanasia is being practiced, and it persons right on …show more content…
In the nineteenth century, English philosophers Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill came up with a theory known as utilitarianism, which states that our only job in life is to be happy; therefore an individual should choose courses of action that will increase happiness and minimize unhappiness for the greatest number of people. The utilitarian approach would argue in favor of euthanasia that if patient is suffering it is only logically correct to end the suffering of the patient as well as to those who may be affected. The problem with utilitarianism is that it focuses on the consequences rather than the decision making process. For example if an individual is giving pleasure by doing something unjust and is not caught doing so, no suffering would occur and the individual’s pleasure would be seen as just. Yet, regardless of the flaws in utilitarianism, most people would agree with other values that it represents such as individual rights and freedom. Not giving a person the right to end their life denies them those values. Within the case of physician-assisted suicide (PAS), the utilitarian approach might argue that once a patient is terminally ill keeping the patient alive plainly to die slowly and painfully; suffering is greatly increased for family and loved ones. Rather than seeing the radical approach to euthanasia and killing all of those who are