Is Euthanasia Ethically Wrong

In modern society, euthanasia, also known as mercy killing, is a controversial area of conversation surrounded by pressing social concerns involving the ethics of assisted death. Euthanasia is a practice that results in the painless death of a patient suffering from an incurable, painful disease or permanent coma as a means of preventing further distress. As an effect of the controversy already surrounding the nature of death, the rise of euthanasia poses an opportunity for dispute regarding the ethics of mercy killing. With this in mind, personhood is one such example of an ethical concern as to be considered a ‘person’ with decision-making abilities, a set of qualities determining personhood must be displayed. Another consideration in the …show more content…
When is a human not a considered to be a person? Peter Singer, a bioethics professor and Director of the Center for Human Values at Princeton University, defines the concept of being a ‘person, ' as an individual who actively is exercising “rational attributes”(self-consciousness, knowing, choosing, anatomy, etc.) and some “sentience.” The ethical controversy of this concept is that while it can involve the dehumanization of people, it also substantiates the argument for voluntary euthanasia. Arguably, voluntary euthanasia is required to respect the autonomous, rationality that defines a ‘person, ' as to deny euthanasia is to deny the defining properties of a ‘person.’ Paradoxically, in keeping with the Singer’s definition, many individuals who would be expected to consider euthanasia are not deemed to be “persons” and hence are unable to make the decision whether or not to undergo assisted death. The inability to be distinguished as a person with fundamental human rights provides a question of ethics: is it right to disregard an individual’s decision to pass based on dehumanizing criteria? Accordingly, the correlation between personhood and the core human rights drives controversy and …show more content…
Accordingly, it is the respect for the choice of people suffering illness, which results in the ethical controversy, as the wishes of the patient provide an insight into the debates surrounding euthanasia. With attention to ethics, some arguments emphasize that a person other than the patient cannot establish the condition of unbearable suffering and that if the situation has no prospect of improvement or the means of ceasing that suffering, then the ability to endure can only be defined by the patient. The pro- autonomy cause rationalizes the legalization of euthanasia stressing that the patient’s wish to avoid unnecessary and inevitable physical suffering are critical to analyzing the ethics of the right to control medical treatment and the choice of assisted dying. In contrast, opposing ethical issues question whether terminally ill people are cognitively capable of making the decision, from a rational standpoint, to end their life. Operating on the basis that longtime suffering can give rise to depressive attitudes, the ethics of allowing an unstable person to possess the right to choose euthanasia provides debate. Another key argument, be it in support of autonomy, holds the ability to be autonomous as unconditionally valuable, therefore implying a duty to preserve a patient 's ability to choose. On the