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Achieving Active Euthanasia In Brittany Maynard's Death

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In the textbook, James Rachels, in some situations, feels that letting people die is morally worse than killing them. Rachel feels as if performing active euthanasia on a patient is okay. Active euthanasia allows the patient to not be in pain anymore and end their life knowing they do not have much longer in them. Say a patient has a disease that is incurable and is going to be in pain for the rest of their lives and does not want to be unable to partake in daily life activities they will not want to live anymore. The doctors giving them the correct medicine to take to die would be killing instead of not doing anything to try to save the patient. Giving patients treatment so they can die upon their wishes, not the doctors, would be considered Utilitarian ethical principles. When the patient has …show more content…

When Maynard had found out she did not have much longer to live, she had decided to move to a state that allowed her to have the right to die. In my opinion, I feel that she deserved the legal right to end her life as she was told she only had a little longer to live in her life anyways. It would be completely different if Maynard was able to get her brain tumor out and live a long, healthy life. However, that was not the case and she did not want to be in pain for the rest of her life. Since Maynard was so young, she did not want the rest of her life to be in pain. I agree with her thinking, as I would rather not feel pain. Pain and discomfort is something that I wish could go away and not happen again. As I agree with the patient’s wants, the American Medical Opinion on Euthanasia feels that ending one's life is going to cause more harm than it would do any good. The American Medical Opinion on Euthanasia states, “The physician who performs euthanasia assumes unique responsibility for the act of ending the patient’s life”

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In the video, there is a debate about Brittany Maynard, a 29 years old woman who was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. She suffered a lot from the disease. There wasn’t any cure to help her fight against the disease. As a result, she killed herself because, for her, it was best to die now then waiting after cancer affects all her body. So, she chose one of kind of euthanasia, active euthanasia.

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To understand the ongoing debate about active and passive euthanasia, we must first look into Rachel’s

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The opposing side claim euthanasia is wrong and rather than mercy kill, take pain relievers and go to doctors. The opposing side is incorrect and euthanasia should be a legal option for a hospital patient to decide not the government. Taking medicine every day to relieve pain would be terrible due the fact that the person has to take the medicine multiple times a day and too much medicine can actually cause more health problems euthanasia is a great option and be a decision for the patient Goodman states in his article “We all have better chance of dying slowly while connected to half dozen tubes in the hospital ICU” (Goodman). Euthanasia prevents suffering something medical help can't completely stop also medical help stretches out the pain so you can live longer but it comes with so much pain and

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We can always turn on our televisions and hear about a current controversy on all of our news channels. Near the end of 2014, we saw one story that was brought to attention to our whole country. Brittany Maynard created controversy on how sick patients should be able to choose their own death given their current situations. Moving to Oregon, Maynard would bring their Death With Dignity Act into her play, and be the face of their advocacy. Brittany Maynard was just 29 when she was first diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.

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In this article author James Rachels highlights the true meaning along with pros and cons of what active and passive euthanasia are. Since the very beginning the author ensures that the reader can understand the difference between these two concepts. He uses multiple examples and facts to support his idea. For example, he mentions that active euthanasia is at times more humane than that of passive euthanasia. His thought regarding this is that, with active euthanasia the person is less prone to having a painful death rather than just letting a person go through the passive channel and just letting that person suffer and die with agony.

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Threatening to diminish the value of life is very dangerous. Euthanasia, also called mercy killing, is the practice of doctors intentionally ending a terminally ill patient’s life in what is purportedly a gentle and dignified manner. The term originated in ancient Greek and means “easy death.” Doctors perform euthanasia by administering lethal drugs or by withholding treatment that would prolong the patient’s life. Physician-assisted suicide is also a form of euthanasia, but the difference between the two methods is that in euthanasia, doctors end the patient’s life with lethal injections, whereas, in physician-assisted suicide, patients kill themselves with a lethal amount of drugs prescribed by the doctors.

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In light of this diagnosis, she decided to end her life by using a lethal prescription provided by her doctor. As a result of Maynard’s advocacy for dying with dignity, the issue of physician-assisted death quickly resurfaced as a controversial topic of discussion. Was her decision to end her life ethically justifiable? Should individuals

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Brittany Maynard was a young woman who campaigned for “Death with dignity” and was an advocate for the organization “Compassion and Choices” that aims at defending the rights and choices of patients at the end of their lives. She was in her late twenties when she experienced a painful malignant brain tumor. She posted a video on YouTube in which she stated that she had chosen to pass away claiming that this decision would alleviate her pain just because she will die the way she wants and not the way she was supposed to. In fact, she had been undergoing terrible headaches, nausea and seizures, but when the symptoms aggravate the pain, she made that decision of prevailing over the tumor by taking deadly drugs prescribed by a doctor and consequently

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However, these people do not consider the fact that it is not only selfish, but inhumane to ask another human to live a life of suffrage. Therefore, by forcing patients to live not only are we putting them through the humiliation of constant injections, uncomfortable doctor visits, but we are asking them to endure a life of loneliness and pain. The only right thing to do is support the choices, which patients make with their own bodies. Consequently, the command choice which patients make is assisted suicide. By being given the option of assisted suicide, patients have

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For the terminally ill the decision of ending their lives with compassion should be a fundamental right, a personal

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