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Opposing The Arguments Against Euthanasia In The United States

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The purpose of this paper is to persuade the audience to allow euthanasia to be legal in more countries. Euthanasia is the painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease or in an irreversible coma. It is also known as mercy killing. This process is done by an attending physician administering a fatal dose of a drug to the patient on his or her verbal request. Many people do not support this claim because most people believe that euthanasia is immoral. However, I disagree. I understand that life should be preserved and protected but, not to the extent of feeling nothing but pain. The importance of supporting euthanasia allow patients to their liberty and not depriving them of any of their rights. In addition, if …show more content…

By this statement Benatar means that these two arguments are used as scare tactics. The first argument, slippery slope is meant to make the claim that if some specific action such as euthanasia is allowed, the society will be led down the slippery slope and allow actions that are morally wrong. On the contrary, euthanasia is not morally wrong because just as a man or woman have the right to live, they also have the right to die. The second argument, abuse supports this claim because withholding a person from the right to decide whether to live or die is abuse of authority (Benatar, 2011). The patient should be allowed their freedom of liberty to decide what is best for himself or …show more content…

“Simply put, laws against assisted death cause suffering on an unprecedented scale, not just for the terminally ill but for their families as well.” (Morris, 2013). In 2002 in the United Kingdom, a woman by the name of Diane Pretty fought against the European Court of Human Rights and was rejected her right to die. She was suffering from motor neurone disease and the law took away her right to die (Laville, 2002). Mrs. Pretty was terrified to die from choking or suffocation and ended up slipping into a coma state that eventually resulted in her death (Laville, 2002). Her death was three days after her hearing in court. She simply could have been granted her right and end her suffering for herself and her husband, so that he too would not have to watch her suffer. My fourth argument is the hippocratic oath. “The famous maxim “do no harm” is a summation of the Hippocratic Oath—an ancient code designed to guide doctors in their actions.” (Morris, 2013). From this oath, people assume that doctors are not suppose to harm the patient's chances of survival. Although, this could also mean not to keep someone alive if death is preferable due to a valid justification such as extreme pain. It all comes down to how people perceive “harm”. By allowing patients to continue to suffer their pain could also be seen as harming the patient (Morris,

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The oath of Hippocrates binds the physician to a promise “to do no harm.” However, the oath poses a dilemma for the physician to either participate in or decline PAS. A physician’s perception of the dilemma indicates his belief in PAS. For example, Kitty Rayl of Oregon, with terminal uterine cancer, turned to Dr. Nancy Crumpacker for help in dying. Under Oregon Law, Dr. Crumpacker could assist Kitty’s death with a lethal medication.

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Physician-assisted suicide, or euthanasia, is defined as “the act or practice of causing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy.” The controversy over euthanasia pits courts, medical professionals, and the ill against questions of reason, laws, and

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The main purpose of this chapter is to identify the arguments in favour and against assisted dying and to set out a framework of safeguards that would accompany any changes in legislation. This chapter will help show how the concerns regarding the legalisation of assisted dying are outweighed by the arguments in favour of a change in legislation. One of the strongest and most compelling arguments in favour of assisted dying draws on the importance of autonomy and individual liberty; in a liberal state individual freedoms must be respected, “the right to determine what shall be done with one’s own body is a fundamental right in our society” (Tiensuu,2015, p259). In the UK, people generally have the right to make their own decisions about how

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“The ethics of euthanasia have been a contentious issue since the beginning of medicine. The Hippocratic Oath takes a strong stand against euthanasia, requiring doctors to pledge never to “give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor…make a suggestion to this effect” (Emanuel and Joffe). The oath directly states no to give a patient or to suggest giving them the deadly drug. From this statement it shows that even during the conception of the oath that euthanasia was a frowned upon practice. This is a vital part towards euthanasia’s legality along with its ethicality.

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This essay will present the arguments often expressed against legalising assisted dying as well as criticisms of those arguments. A major criticism of assisted dying legalisation is the ‘slippery slope’ argument, which can be interpreted in two different ways. The first interpretation is that legalising assisted dying just for the terminally ill would create a framework within which debates and campaigns to extend its legality to cover other groups of people would occur. Such groups of people could include people suffering from irreversible diseases like dementia, people who

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The bond that a physician and a patient have is strong. For a physician to see their patient in unimaginable pain is complete agony. I support euthanasia because sometimes it is the only way out of a painful and terrifying death. People against euthanasia are willing to allow people to live a life that is worse than death. A glioblastoma patient named Brittany Maynard said, “I wish there was a cure for my disease but there's not...

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However, opposition to assisted dying are concerned about a slippery slope, where patient’s choices could be abused. Beyond the opposition to assisted dying based on concerns about potential abuse is the threat of the so-called slippery slope. According to opposition’s theory, legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide would be followed by non-voluntary euthanasia, involving patients whose current personal desires could not be evaluated due to pressure from family or financial circumstance or believe that patient is burden on society. From there it would be a short step to involuntary euthanasia, where death is forced upon people who understand the circumstance and do not want to die. This practice may permit even the most limited forms

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And I want to die on my own terms” (p. 1). If given the choice, a person should be able to decide how they die. People do not enjoy seeing themselves become weak and helpless; no one should get to tell them how they die. People who are against euthanasia believe that it goes against all medical ethics and should not be legal anywhere, however, a doctors job is to help and provide care to patients. If they need help in having a simple peaceful death before they get so sick they are a completely different person, they should be given that

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The right to assisted suicide in the United States is a controversial and significant topic that seems to concern people all throughout the country. The debate goes back and forth about whether a terminally ill patient has the right to decide to die with the assistance of a physician. Of course, several people are against it, more commonly because of religious, ethical or moral reasons. Many competent dying patients in extreme uncontrollable pain and suffering request their attending physician to assist them in performing active euthanasia. Euthanasia is “ a mode of ending life in which the intent is to cause the patient’s death in a single act (also called mercy killing)” Nordqvist.

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Dr. Kevorkian, a euthanasia and assisted suicide activist did not believe in the Hippocratic Oath - which swears that healthcare employees will always try to protect and save life - as he stated, “just as the oath never had any real meaning with regard to abortion, so too it’s now irrelevant in the right-to-die debate” (Ball, H. 2012). Both of these controversial subjects bring on our question of freedom and Ball explains this, “the suffering of a … person cannot be deemed any less intimate or personal, or any less deserving of protection from unwarranted government interference than that of a pregnant woman” (Ball, H. 2012). The right to be able to choose what happens to a person’s body is controversial all over the world however, it should not be. If a patient that is suffering from an illness as aggressive as a form of dementia wants to die, no one should be able to stop them.

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Many supporters of voluntary euthanasia believe that everyone has the right to control their body and life, and should be free to decide at what time, and in which manner they will die. The idea behind this is that unnecessary restraints on human rights should be avoided. It was said in an article in the Independent newspaper in March 2002, that; “In cases where there are no dependents who might exert pressure one way or the other, the right of the individual to choose should be paramount. So long as the patient is lucid, and his or her intent is clear beyond doubt, there need be no further questions.” Since the right to life gives a person the right to not be killed if they do not want to, proponents of euthanasia argue that respect for this right will prevent euthanasia being misused, as killing a patient without their permission would violate their human rights.

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Going through a whole process to ensure that their last moments alive are not full of agonizing pain does not devalue human life. On the contrary, leaving ill patients to suffer and die a painful death demonstrates that euthanasia is a more humane

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Many pro-euthanasia believers will use the autonomy argument and debate the opinion that patients should have the right to choose when and how to they want to die. In an article in the Houston Chronicle, Judge Reinhardt ruled on this topic by stating “a competent, terminally-ill adult, having lived nearly the full measure of his life, has a strong liberty interest in choosing a dignified and humane death… (De La Torre).” However, dignity cannot be measured by the level of pain or the speed in which the individual dies, because it is already a characteristic of a person’s worth as a human being (Middleton). Allowing a patient to live their life to the fullest until the very end is surely a more humane and dignified death then cutting that life short in fear of what it is coming through the practice of euthanasia. While death for these patients can be a sad ending, it does not have to condemn a person to a remaining life of sadness and negativity.

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INTRODUCTION Euthanasia alludes to the act of deliberately close a life keeping in mind the end goal to assuage torment and enduring. There are different euthanasia laws in each country. The British House of Lords Select Committee on Medical Ethics defines euthanasia as "a deliberate intervention undertaken with the express intention of ending a life, to relieve intractable suffering".[1] In the Netherlands, euthanasia is understood as "termination of life by a doctor at the request of a patient"". Euthanasia is sorted in diverse ways, which incorporate voluntary, non-voluntary, or automatic.

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Have you ever imagined one of your loved ones suffering from a painful illness? Have you ever wanted that person to die and rest in peace? This is called Euthanasia, which means the termination of a patient’s life who is suffering from excruciating pain and a terminal disease. Euthanasia came from the Greek for good (“eu”) and death (“thanatos”) “good death”(Sklansky, (2001) p.5.) There are more than four types of euthanasia such as active euthanasia, which means that death is caused directly by another person by giving the patient a poisonous injection.

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