Passive Euthanasia

The issue of euthanasia has always caused a mixed reaction in the community. Attention to this issue has sufficiently increased with the development of social progress, in particular – life support technology for incurably ill people. The importance of this topic is difficult to overestimate. First of all, this issue is important due to the fact that euthanasia is associated with the most precious thing that a human being has – their life. Secondly, this issue is important nowadays because of the almost complete absence of relevant legal acts in the legislation of many countries. Many physicians, lawyers, psychologists, politicians, and religious leaders constantly debate on the issue of euthanasia legalization. However, there is no a clear …show more content…
Passive euthanasia is quite common in medical practice. Passive euthanasia is a refusal of using life-sustaining treatment. It also involves stopping the treatment. In these cases, intravenous fluids and artificial feeding should be stopped according to the patient’s wishes. Moreover, doctors are not allowed to try to resurrect the patient if his or her heart or lungs stop working. If it is possible to discharge the patient from the hospital in order to die at home, in this case, nobody has a right to stop the patient in doing so. Generally, passive euthanasia is expressed in stopping medically helping patients to extend their lives, which causes an acceleration of a natural death. Active euthanasia occurs when a doctor or a member of patient’s family ends the patient’s life by drug administration. Active euthanasia is an intentional decision to end the patient’s life. Active euthanasia includes a life-ending decision made by the patient or somebody …show more content…
Patients rather die than have the illness reduce them to a shell of their former selves. And sometimes it kills them to know that they are not able to take care of themselves without the help of nursing assistants. Those patients want people to remember them as what they used to be like, not as someone who is weak. That is why most patients want to die with dignity. Such situation was mentioned in “Me Before You,” a novel by Jojo Moyes. The main character Will Traynor, a successful, wealthy, and once-active young man who was paralyzed in a motorcycle accident. It was hard for him to continue living the life of a quadriplegic. He hates not being able to do things that he used and loved to do. He cannot continue living in a wheelchair and does not want people to remember him as someone who cannot even eat by himself. That is why he decides to fly to Switzerland and commit assisted suicide in one of the clinics. It was his way of leaving the world with