The Pros And Cons Of Active Euthanasia

When most people hear assisted suicide, the first question that comes up is “Is not assisted suicide just murder?” The majority of people agree it is homicide; even doctors as “[t]rained as they are to preserve life, most doctors are troubled by the thought of helping patients end their lives” (Worsnop). The law has determined that active euthanasia is murder “[s]ince it is tantamount to homicide, [it] is illegal in every state” (Worsnop) but pro-euthanasia groups declare a change needs to be made. Passive euthanasia is legal but it too is murder. If life support is turned off on patients that have no say in the matter, it should also count as organized murder. The only differences between the active and passive form of euthanasia is passive …show more content…
The lines are too blurry to take a proper stance. In most cases it would be murder but imagine “a soldier has their stomach blown open by a shell burst” (BBC) and they plead for the doctor to save them. The doctor realizing “he has no painkilling drugs with him” (BBC) the patient only has a few minutes to live and takes the liberty to shoot the dying patient to end his pain. This case would be categorized as involuntary euthanasia but is what the doctor did really justifiable? In his eyes, it was for the betterment of the patient and most doctors live by the motto to only do good for their …show more content…
This sparked a lot of controversy as many thought doctors would abuse this power and try to steer patients towards euthanasia as the primary option. What people fail to realize is doctors are humans too. Their whole career revolves around saving lives even if it is not what the general public would recognize as saving. Most doctors would only use euthanasia sparingly and try to make the patient consider it as a last resort. People also fear the legalization of euthanasia would cause a rapid increase in the suicide rates for