Paper On Euthanasia

“I am dying and I refuse to lose my dignity.”(Maynard). Many people feel this way when they learn the life changing statement that they have a terminal disease. Brittney Maynard, who was diagnosed with a terminal brain disease decided to choose the option of Euthanasia to save her dignity and leave the world by her own choice and means. Euthanasia is the termination of a very sick person's life in order to relieve their suffering. A person who undergoes euthanasia usually has an incurable condition but there are other instances where some people want their life to be ended. This term of euthanasia is derived from the Greek word euthanatos which means easy death (Nordqvist). This topic known as euthanasia is a controversial issue that is

An incurable disease is a disorder or function in the body that can’t be cured (Dictionary). Cancer patients, paralyzed patients and patients who have other incurable disease have to suffer in ways others would not understand and for that reason some choose to die with dignity using euthanasia. With Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (A.L.S), you have a choice about when to stop treatment, letting nature take its course explains Dr. Linda Ganzini, a professor of psychiatry at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, who has studied patients making end-of-life decisions (Estrin and Schwartz). With some incurable diseases sometimes the only option a patient has left is letting nature take its course. By letting nature take over patient's lose their quality of life and end up suffering more. Those patients who end up suffering continue to suffer till the end of their life. Also these patients don’t know when they will die but will know for sure that they will suffer. Dr. Art Caplan, Director of the Medical Ethics Program at New York University's Langone Medical Center in New York City, explained to CBSnews that every state allows competent adults the right to refuse medical treatment, even life-saving treatment. Dr. Caplan brings out that every individual has their right to get medical treatments or not (Paralyzed Hunter, 2013). If legally the state allows the patients the right to die on their own terms by refusing

Euthanasia was first recognized in the 5th century and continued its way to the 21st century. In ancient Greece and Rome, before the coming of Christianity, attitudes toward infanticide, active euthanasia, and suicide had tended to be tolerant. Many ancient Greeks and Romans had defined this belief in the inherent value of individual human life, and pagan physicians likely performed frequent abortions as well as both voluntary and involuntary mercy killings (Dowbiggin). Euthanasia was not completely approved of or disapproved by the ancient Greek and Roman societies. There was a belief of how physicians or pagan physicians should act when a patient wanted the option of euthanasia from their doctors and they believed to go to any extent to help their patients and relieve the pain. On January 16th 1938, Charles Francis Potter created the first National Society of Legalization of Euthanasia (NSLE) which was set to help out people with terminal illnesses who wanted a gentle painless death (Dowbiggin).The foundation doesn't exist anymore today but its value and beliefs remain in many groups like Hawaii Death With Dignity Society and Death With Dignity National Center which leads out to the American society like the NSLE group once had done (Dowbiggin). Many groups around the United States of America are working their way up to make euthanasia legal in the United States of America. Out of 50