The Legalization Of Euthanasia

Decent Essays
In the past many years, many advancements have been achieved in medical technology. From surgical robots to the first heart transplant, all these advancements are in the hopes of achieving one goal: prolonging a human’s life. Most people are afraid of death; which is why these advancements are ferociously being pursued. However, what if a patient wants to die? Even with all the medical innovations humans have achieved, can a patient be granted death if they wish for it? The word “euthanasia” was first used by a Roman historian to describe a painless, easy and happy death given to a patient with help from their physician (“A General History of Euthanasia”). Euthanasia can be classified into three categories: voluntary, non-voluntary, and involuntary. …show more content…
The voluntary euthanasia of terminally ill patients in the United States should be legalized because it ends patient suffering, it saves money, and it is the patient’s right to die. Opponents against euthanasia argue that its legalization will result in legalization of disabled people, depressed people, and the mentally incompetent. This argument does hold some truth in what could plausibly occur. Doctors could take advantage of these situations and kill many patients who did not want euthanasia. However, many precautions could be taken to prevent such a disaster from happening. For example, euthanasia has been legalized in the Netherlands since 1973. Upon being legalized, doctors who participated in euthanasia were required to intensively …show more content…
Most patients diagnosed with a terminal illness are faced with many difficulties in life. For some, just the idea of dying itself leaves them depressed, lonely, and diminishes their self-esteem. Val Mckay is a woman suffering from these factors. She lived in Scotland and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and ever since she was diagnosed, her body began shutting down from her feet and up. The doctors told her she only had six more months to live, but to Val that was too much. When she did her interview with Jocasta Shakespeare in 2008, Val could still use her fingers but was slowly losing control of her left arm. Val knew that soon enough she would be stuck on her bed. Unable to digest her own food, she would be fed through a tube in her stomach; she would slowly choke to death as her airways close down. She has family and friends that she does not see because she is too ashamed to let them see her the way she was. Val felt that she was trapped and the pain was something she could not deal with it. All she wanted was a “dignified death which she had control of” (Shakespeare). In 2006, accompanied by her son and daughters, Val Mckay was given lethal drugs by Dr. Turner when it was approved that he met all the guidelines. Val was taken to her apartment by a nurse, her son and daughters where she died a happy death (Shakespeare). Val’s disease prevented her from going out and living life

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The topics of Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide are troubling ones for many. Some believe that it is immoral to kill off their loved ones, some support it, and others are not quite sure what to think. Euthanasia is defined as the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering from an incurable illness; Physician Assisted Suicide is defined as the voluntary termination of one’s life using lethal substances with the help of a doctor, directly or indirectly. A doctor gives the patient suffering from an incurable illness a lethal injection which then induces the painless death. Right now only 5 states states have legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide.…

    • 482 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Physician Assisted Suicide

    • 1177 Words
    • 5 Pages

    It does not include judging that a life that can be preserved is not worth preserving, overriding the opinion of the person whose life it is”. (David N. O’Steen, Ph.D. & Burke J. Balch, JD). Thus, physicians should not empower patients to consider ending their own life as it violates their role of a healer and keeping patients alive. As the availability of physician-assisted suicide increases, elderly, disabled, or depressed patients are likely to suffer from a more pressured phase to end their…

    • 1177 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Euthanization for humans has been a controversial topic for thousands of years. In fact, the ancient Greeks and Romans tended to support the idea of physician-assisted suicide (Introduction). Physician-assisted suicide was so widely accepted by the ancient Greeks and Romans because they often had no value for individual lives (Introduction). With this notion, abortions were common; along with both voluntary and involuntary mercy killings. Like any issues that deal with death, there were also ancient Greeks and Romans who did not support the idea of a physician-assisted death (Introduction).…

    • 1680 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Although there is an ongoing debate in the United States about physician-assisted suicide and whether it should be legalized across the United States, the legalization of physician-assisted suicide would not only help patients “die with dignity”, it would also help their families and medical professionals as well. Physician-assisted suicide, or euthanasia, is the process of a medical doctor assisting a terminally ill patient end their lives in a pain free and professional process. Physician-assisted suicide has already been pasted in five states in the United States and in many different countries across the World, and continues to grow in popularity. The supporters of physician-assisted suicide believe that by allowing patients who have suffered greatly have a right to end their lives in a pain free and…

    • 1711 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Suffering, unimaginable pain, and the loss of meaning in life are all fears that people face when thinking about their eventual deaths. However, these fears can be dismissed by the practice of physician-assisted suicide. This practical and ethical procedure is a safe and humane way to help those with terminal illnesses die on their own terms without causing more damage to not only themselves but to their family as well. While physician-assisted suicide is frowned upon by many moral crusaders, the legalization of this process is necessary due to the need for protection of people’s rights, the current working application of supportive legislation, and the support of a majority of the population where activism is occurring. As stated by the…

    • 1648 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The idea of life and death has always been a concept that many people try to avoid, but what happens when a loved one becomes too ill to live? This question has given rise to the idea of euthanasia and Physician-assisted suicide, which although may seem similar, have very different properties. Although physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia both support the belief that one has the right to choose their own fate, the constant backlash in society has limited its practice resulting in the disappearance of a method which, although unorthodox, offer a relief to people suffering from deadly diseases. Euthanasia is “the intentional killing by an act of . . . a dependent human being for his or her benefit” (MCCL.org) and involves two different methods.…

    • 762 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Imagine your terminally ill grandmother lying in a hospital bed, slowly dying of cancer, and the only two words she continues to repeat are “kill me.” If physician-assisted suicide, or PAS, was legal in the United States, loved ones would no longer have to suffer. In order to allow terminally ill patients to die with dignity, the U.S. government needs to legalize PAS. PAS should be legalized because it grants patients the right to a respectable death, the process ensures patients are competent enough to request it, and US physicians and AMA board members approve of it.…

    • 971 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Maya Young Young 1 Mrs. Kline Period 2 10 April, 2017 Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide To die is a frightening idea. Exceedingly frightening is the idea of passing away slowly, painfully, and with little dignity, only to leave behind emotional trauma and a possibly unmanageable debt for loved ones. Such is the reality for unlucky patients with prolonged terminal conditions. While it may seem to be a helpless scenario, there are methods of physician-assisted suicide that could be provided to hopeless patients in order to minimize these grievances.…

    • 1736 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Alternatives to euthanasia can prevent putting too much power in other hands, and eliminate consequences in the future; therefore, euthanasia should not be legalized. Through the legalization of Euthanasia we will eventually enter a “slippery slope”. One of the biggest concerns with euthanasia is when to cross the line at who can receive euthanasia. As euthanasia progresses more laws and rules are being set to allow more people to receive euthanasia.…

    • 1580 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    For many years now it has been a debating topic whether or not a dying patient has the right to die with the assistance of a physician. Some are for it because it’s seems morally right to respect the wishes of a patient, and others are against it because of religious reasons. The main concern for many is if it’s more acceptable for terminally ill patients that are in the final stages of their lives. Physicians are also torn on the issue, not knowing where it draws the line between dying, or killing.…

    • 747 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    As a lot of ethical dilemmas about ending life continues to rise and become common, physicians of all specialties, all registered nurses and enrolled nurses will be confronted with questions from patients and their families, and from legislators and the media. There will come a time for a patient suffering from a terminal illness, where treatments aimed at cure is either no longer effective or the burden of side effects such as severe nausea and vomiting becomes so overwhelming that patients cancel out any benefit for treatment (Best 2010). However, despite the fact that patients have a right to make decisions about their life and treatments, there are several laws that prevent them from opting for euthanasia. Euthanasia violates codes of medical ethics that have existed since the ancient past and the Hippocratic oath taken by doctors on graduation prevents them from aiding a patient’s death (Best 2010). This results in terminally ill patients suffering from incurable disease to remain in pain and suffering, hence depriving them of their rights to autonomy to end their life quicker and peacefully if they so choose to.…

    • 1357 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Death is universal and everyone will face it. We don’t like to think about it, but we often do. Each individual hopes that they will die a painless and peaceful death in their sleep. However, this is not true for many unfortunate people. Certain diseases, such as aids, Alzheimer’s, cancer, and incurable tumors, as well as accidents that cause brain death or paralysis, often leaves us with unbearable physical pain or depression to the point that many would rather die than live a life of such agony.…

    • 1927 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Outline for Arguments on PAS and Euthanasia When addressing the matter of Euthanasia and PAS, “we must first acknowledge that figuring out the benefits and harms of permitting euthanasia or PAS is speculative at best” (Emanuel). As well, it is important to acknowledge the fact that, “no matter which social policy regarding euthanasia or PAS is adopted - legalization or maintaining the current policy of permitting them in individual cases - there will be both benefits and harms” (Emanuel). In this argument, it will be shown that legalizing Euthanasia and PAS within the United States, will help people, by allowing terminally ill patients to realize the end of a good death or, more accurately, a create a higher quality dying experience for them.…

    • 1505 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Benefits Of Euthanasia

    • 1350 Words
    • 5 Pages

    “I’d rather be dead than be in a wheelchair, or need a respirator to help me breathe” ("Right to Die: Should Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide Be Legal). Terminally ill patients often state they’d be better off dead. Euthanasia is a quiet, painless death used for terminally ill patients. Terminally ill patients are those patients who cannot be cured and are already at great risk of dying. Terminally ill patients only have a life expectancy of six months or less.…

    • 1350 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This choice is often considered in patients who are diagnosed with illnesses that medical interventions will not be able to cure, but rather only prolong one’s life by treating the pain. It is imperative that we legalize euthanasia as a medical practice that allows medical professionals to help grant their patient 's last wishes. There are two types of euthanasia, the first of which is active euthanasia. This is the process in which a person gives their consent to end their life. Medical professionals attending to their patients would provide the patient with either a lethal dose of medicine or a prescription for a lethal amount to do in their own time.…

    • 1406 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays