Legalization Of Euthanasia And Physician Assisted Suicide

Assisted suicide is usually described with the term euthanasia. Euthanasia is the deliberate ending of a terminally ill patient’s life. This could be done by the doctor giving the patient lethal doses of medications. Euthanasia is usually done by a physician although in some cases any one may step in and illegally assist with another’s death. Physician assisted suicide also refers to euthanasia and is defined as a physician assisting a terminally ill patient with their own death by providing the necessary means and information that enable the patient to end their life. In physician assisted suicide the physician does not physically assist in ending the person’s life. Euthanasia is also referred to as mercy killings. The main goal or purpose …show more content…
states mentioned above there are certain requirement that have to be met before euthanasia can be deemed legal. For Washington, Vermont, Oregon and New Mexico the requirements are basically the same where as the requirements for Montana slightly differs. The first requirement for Washington, Vermont, Oregon and New Mexico is that you must be a resident of that state to put in a request for euthanasia. Another requirement is that the person seeking legal euthanasia must be at least eighteen years of age or older. The last requirement needed is that the person must have two oral requests for euthanasia to a physician that were done at least fifteen days apart from one another. They also will need one written request to a physician. As for Montana there are only two requirements and that is that they must be a resident of Montana and for euthanasia to be legal they must go to court and get an order allowing the euthanasia to …show more content…
A main worry is that euthanasia is permanent or irreversible. This becomes an issue because miracles do happen, when they say miracles, im referring to a patient waking up from a coma after being comatose for several years. Another factor that critics of euthanasia bring up is if euthanasia is done without the person’s permission. For example a patient’s family member might make the decision for their loved one to be euthanized even if the patient did not want it. This may be done if a loved one does not want to see their family member going through the pain and other things they may have to deal with. It also might be done if the family member is trying to get insurance money or an inheritance. Instead of waiting for death to occur naturally they may try to find ways to speed up the process euthanasia being one of those ways. Another negative aspect is that the doctor may misunderstand the patient’s