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Physician Assisted Suicide And Active Euthanasia

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A topic that is heavily debated is something called euthanasia. Euthanasia is the act of bringing about a person’s death with the intention of relieving pain and suffering (Buckles, 2018). There are two different kinds of euthanasia, passive and active (Buckles, 2018). Passive euthanasia is the action of ending a life-preserving treatment in order to bring about the death of a patient (Buckles, 2018). Active euthanasia is the action of bringing about the death of the patient by administering a lethal dose of a drug or medicine (Buckles, 2018). The most commonly held belief in relation to moral standing for euthanasia is that killing, active euthanasia, is always worse than letting die, passive euthanasia (Buckles, 2018). However, in some circumstances, …show more content…

Going even further, I wish to argue that killing can even be morally correct over letting someone die. If someone requests to die, then we’re respecting their wishes and relieving any pain and suffering; So by killing someone in a situation like that isn’t morally wrong according to the definition of euthanasia. According to Utilitarian values, killing is not always worse than letting die, it depends on a case by case basis, and there are instances where killing is more morally correct. In order to build the foundation of my argument, I’m going to use Utilitarianism, which states that morally right actions are ones that promote pleasure and morally wrong actions are ones that promote pain (Mill,1861). Euthanasia at its core is backed by utilitarianism, because to euthanize someone is to relieve pain and suffering of that person, which would be morally correct according to Utilitarian values. If there’s an instance where an older man entered a …show more content…

They might even feel more pain and suffering if their relative were kept alive. They would have to see their relative suffer every day, and the family members would have to sacrifice their time and money to the patient. The patient would either have to burden their family member with the bills or rely on them to help him live his daily life. If the family helped pay for the medical bills, the patient would feel guilty, and would have to sacrifice time to go to the doctors for the prosthetics. The patient most likely wouldn’t be able to use his prosthetic arms to the full extent that he used to use his real arms, so he would be limited in what kinds of jobs that he could work. If that patient had refused to get financial help from his family and live without arms, he would have to live his life completely dependent on other people. Western society is very much rooted in independence and not being able to have independence could cause serious mental health issues in the patient. If the patient had to depend on someone to help him in his daily life, either he would need a family member to help him every day or he would have to hire a caretaker. If he took the caretaker route trying not to burden his family, he would have to find a way to pay the caretaker. The patient would most likely lose their job and any benefits that came with the job and

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Euthanasia Rough Draft Euthanasia has been a big topic of conversation around the United States for the past decade. There are those who are against death by medicine, and those who are for dying with dignity. Right off the back, the words death by medicine and dying with dignity sound a lot different. Those who are pro Euthanasia look at it as ending a persons suffering, and giving them a choice. People against Euthanasia look at it as either suicide or murder, and find it inhumane.

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Rachel and J. Gay-WIlliams have opposing ethical positions regarding physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia. Rachel backs his ethical approval of euthanasia with two strong arguments. His first argument is the “Utilitarian version of the argument” (Rachels, RIght Thing To Do, 350). This basic claim is that “any action or social policy is morally right if it serves to increase the amount of happiness in the world or to decrease the amount of misery” (Rachels, RTD, 350). Since those who would be euthanized would become relieved of their unpreventable and agonizing pain (i.e. misery) euthanasia would be morally right.

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Euthanasia is vastly controversial around the globe. Euthanasia is the act of painlessly killing a person either with serious medical conditions, or in a few places around the world patients can be killed solely out of desire. This can be broken down into two forms, passive or active euthanasia. The passive form is known as letting the patient die, or withholding the necessary medical treatment, while active is administering a drug that results in death (Vaughn 264). After reading Rachels and Williams readings of their views on euthanasia, I know have a clearer view of my side in this debate.

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In terms of Utilitarianism, euthanasia can bring the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people. Bentham and John Stuart Mill, for example, will certainly support euthanasia as legitimate. Utilitarian advocates the pursuit of maximum happiness, a theory that considers benefits as perfection, believing that

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The argument that I am analyzing is found in Philippa Foot’s article Euthanasia. This specific section starts at the beginning on page 88. This argument starts once she talks about the true meaning of Euthanasia and the difficulty in how people see or perceive it. In Foot 's article, she wants to prove that an act of euthanasia is morally permissible, as long as you’re performing it for the right cause or reasons. Foot defines euthanasia as "a matter of opting for death for the good of the one who is to die."

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A modern ethical dilemma in the field of medicine is the morality of Euthanasia. Euthanasia is defined as, “directly or indirectly bringing about the death of another person for that person’s sake” (Vaughn 626). Euthanasia itself can be divided into two different forms, active euthanasia and passive euthanasia. According to Vaughn, “[a]ctive euthanasia is killing, while passive euthanasia is letting die” (626). Through voluntary passive euthanasia, a person dies only through the inaction of another person.

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In passive euthanasia, it is the disease or illness itself, which causes the death of the patient. In essence, it is not our inaction that cause the patient to die, rather, it is the underlying factors of his/her illness that leads to death. However, in active euthanasia, the physician’s action of prescribing or injecting a lethal drug is the agent that directly causes the patient to die. Although the outcome is similar in both cases, the cause of death is different in respect that one is murder and the other is honoring the patient’s wishes in regards how they want to end their

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The whole argument is based off the idea that a person’s life becomes agony, and that death becomes a more desirable option. It should also be noted that an incurable or hard to treat disease is the exact cause of euthanasia, as well sometimes being in an irreversible coma. So, one may consider euthanasia to be morally acceptable when a person has an incurable or untreatable disease than causes agony, because agony is bad, and is the proper justification for doing harm to someone, specifically to the case of

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The patient who is killed made an expressed wish to the contrary. • Passive euthanasia: The patient dies when a physician stops using medical equipment to preserve her/his existence. Euthanasia is unethical for the reason that the practice of ending a life prematurely in order to end pain and suffering of another is dehumanising and violates historically accepted codes of medical ethics, creates

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Specifically, voluntary euthanasia relates to the request of the patient who desires to die. On the other hand, involuntary euthanasia does not presuppose that the patient has a choice to die (Muskus 2015, p.12). Moreover, active euthanasia assumes a considerate and planned intervention, such as giving an injection to a suffering person desiring to die. On the contrary, passive euthanasia refers to the act of discontinuing or withholding treatment to a person so that he/she can die (Meilaender and Werpehowski eds. 2005, p.13).

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Euthanasia is usually used to refer to active euthanasia, and in this sense, euthanasia is usually considered to be criminal homicide, but voluntary, passive euthanasia is widely non-criminal. Voluntary Euthanasia is conducted with the consent of the patient while Involuntary Euthanasia is conducted against the will of the patient. Beginning with the philosophical aspects of euthanasia we must first understand the importance of the sanctity of life. Human life is sacred because God made humankind in His own image, and that each individual human

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Imagine having to endure so much pain and suffering for a majority of your life that you would just want it all to end. Well, there is a way one can stop their own pain and suffering and it is called euthanasia. Euthanasia is the painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease. The act may only be done solely to those diagnosed with terminal illnesses such as cancer, aids, and heart disease. Many people agree with the idea of euthanasia as it can help those who are suffering be stripped of all the pain they are enduring.

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From an economic standpoint, euthanasia is a brilliant alternative. Though many see it as unethical, it may be relieving for the victims to know that once they’ve passed they’re no longer considered burdens to their families. Though harsh, keeping a terminally ill person alive for a year costs no less than $55,000, dying in a dignified way is their last resort when they know their condition is not going to improve. Many patients with incurable diseases have stated that the lengthy and expensive time and operations granted by their families are not worth the few extra months they get of spending time on Earth.

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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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The act of euthanasia, whether active or passive, is heavily obstructed in the medical field. Through medical ethics, the act of passive euthanasia is condoned by withholding treatment and thus, allowing the patient to die. Without any direct contact with the patient, the doctor is not considered as the cause of death. Thus, the medical field views passive euthanasia as of lesser and more permissible value in comparison to active euthanasia. In the statement made by the House of Delegates of the American Medical Association, they perceive this as contrary to mercy killing, as it is, the cessation of the employment of extraordinary means to prolong the life of the body when there is irrefutable evidence that biological death is imminent is the decision of the patient and/or his immediate family.

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