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Controversial Arguments Against Euthanasia

2011 Words9 Pages

Euthanasia has been one of the controversial debates in medical history due to many dilemmas that surround religious, ethical and practical matters. Euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide is defined as the act of ending a person’s life either by their own conscious decision or decision made by a legal guardian to end a person’s suffering. Euthanasia is viewed as an act of murder or manslaughter and is punishable by law. According to the terms of suicide act (1961), the act of deliberately ending someone’s life is deemed illegal in the United Kingdom and for anyone who encourages this will lead to sentence up to 14 years.However, an attempt for an individual to end their life is not a criminal act. In a healthcare environment, it is known …show more content…

Passive euthanasia is when a person wishes to stop having a treatment that is necessary to sustain life, for example, a cancer patient who refuses to go through chemotherapy. Euthanasia can also be categorised as voluntary, non-voluntary and involuntary euthanasia. Voluntary euthanasia is when a person makes a conscious decision to end their own life and requested for help to do this. On the contrary, non-voluntary euthanasia is when someone closely related or legal guardian of the person makes the decision on their behalf as the person is incapable of making a decision due to their health capabilities such as in coma or severe brain damaged. Involuntary euthanasia is when a person life is ended against their wishes. Depending on the situations any type of euthanasia is against the law and is considered as the act of murder or manslaughter. In this case, more would be elaborated on voluntary euthanasia. An example of such is a male patient who wakes up from a coma in a vegetative state and he expressed that he wishes to go through euthanasia if he were to wake up in that state but his family refuses to heed is wishes and instead desires for his life to be

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