Ethical Issues Of Euthanasia In Australia

Euthanasia is the “act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals in a relatively painless way” (Webster, 2018). Euthanasia is generally for people who have an incurable illness, nevertheless there are other ways euthanasia can be done. This is through passive or active ways of euthanasia which either can be involuntary, voluntary and nonvoluntary. As exemplified passive is described as allowing a person to die and active is slowly allowing a person to die by taking pain killers (Erickson & Bowers, 2012). These two ways of allowing euthanasia is different in each country and each state especially in Australia. Euthanasia is an ethical problem widely debated across the globe which is about how much people value human life. Morals and beliefs trigger this ethical dilemma as it poses a threat to the Catholic Church as Catholics follow the word of God through the

Therefore “intentionally causing one’s own death, or suicide, is therefore equally wrong as murder” (Engebreston, Duncan, Elliott, Rule & Rymarz, 2014, p.167). This quote shows that the Catholic Church is strongly against euthanasia and its unethical ideas. Clearly the Catholic morals extinguish all forms of euthanasia as dying is “spiritually important and should not be disturbed” (‘Euthanasia and assisted dying’, 2009). This outlines that death should come naturally as the Holy Spirit lives in every individual. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states in paragraph 2279 that “even if death is thought imminent, the ordinary care owed to a sick person cannot be legitimately interrupted” (Euthanasia and Assited Suicide Catechism, 2018). This meaning that the issue of taking medicine to decrease pain and shorten life is morally wrong in the Catholic Church. Through the Catholic Church the issue of euthanasia is strongly denied as it is immoral and