ipl-logo

Seneca's Argument Against Euthanasia

2452 Words10 Pages

“Just as I shall select my ship when I am about to go on a voyage, or my house when I propose to take a residence, so I shall choose my death when I am about to depart from life”- Seneca. In our world we are entitled to the right of making certain decisions freely. Seneca believed that along with all of the rights he possessed, he should have also obtained the right to choose the ending of his life. While it seems like a simple request, it is actually a controversial topic in our current society. Euthanasia is the act of killing someone who is extremely sick beyond the point of recovery, and wishes to die. Some firmly believe that euthanasia is a way to help the ill escape their pain; others view it as the complete opposite of God’s desire …show more content…

Life support is a costly expense; however, euthanasia is very affordable. Someone who wishes to end their life, but is refused, will spend a substantial amount of money on life support. It is estimated that the cost of euthanasia is around thirty five dollars; however, proper life support expenses add up to around $35,000-$40,000 (Economic Aspects of Euthanasia, n.d.). Many families who have loved ones that need life support eventually choose to ‘pull the plug’ after placing so much money into this expense. The availability of euthanasia allows patients to decide if they want to continue fighting, prior to spending this excessive amount of money. The expenses that hospitals could be saving due to euthanasia could be put towards other aspects of the hospital. Medical institutions spend 27% of Medicare’s budget on final-year-of-life expenses (Robert Leeson, 2013). The hospitals spend such excessive amounts because the deaths are so prolonged, and the sick require many resources. The government is planning to reduce medical spendings by 716 billion over the next ten years (Avik Roy, 2012). This immense loss of funds will deeply affect hospitals nationwide. Legalizing euthanasia will save hospitals some money, since the ill who choose physician assisted suicide will not need life support. Those who choose euthanasia save hospitals tens of thousands of dollars per person. Hospitals who desire to save money may provide unsuitable treatment if euthanasia is legalized. When medical professionals fail to perform the correct tasks to keep their patient alive, it is known as passive euthanasia. Some examples of passive euthanasia include failure to administer life-extending drugs, switching off life-support machines, and disconnecting a feeding tube. By performing passive euthanasia hospitals save money since they do not have to pay for long term life support bills. Legalizing euthanasia encourages

Show More
Related
861 Words | 4 Pages

The cost to keep these patients is cringe worthy and there are very few patients that are wealthy enough to sustain the costs. For those who are not wealthy the cost and burden of debt falls onto love ones. Most family members do not usually think of the costs while they are still on this earth but when they pass away they are left with a huge hospital bill, sometimes leaving people bankrupt. Ronald Dworkin, author of Power for Life, said that "most patients want to spare there love ones with burdens of keeping them alive (193). In allowing these patients to make the choice of ending their lives one can save their loved ones obscene amounts of money and alleviate a

Read More
1546 Words | 7 Pages

Threatening to diminish the value of life is very dangerous. Euthanasia, also called mercy killing, is the practice of doctors intentionally ending a terminally ill patient’s life in what is purportedly a gentle and dignified manner. The term originated in ancient Greek and means “easy death.” Doctors perform euthanasia by administering lethal drugs or by withholding treatment that would prolong the patient’s life. Physician-assisted suicide is also a form of euthanasia, but the difference between the two methods is that in euthanasia, doctors end the patient’s life with lethal injections, whereas, in physician-assisted suicide, patients kill themselves with a lethal amount of drugs prescribed by the doctors.

Read More
677 Words | 3 Pages

Patients can end their suffering quicker and will not have to go through a long, painful death. It speeds up the process of death, shortening the patients’ suffering. In “Introduction to Physician-Assisted Suicide: At Issue”, Ondrey writes, “Advocates of physician-assisted suicide argue that this progress has not only lengthened the lives of terminally

Read More
728 Words | 3 Pages

"Physician-assisted suicide isn 't about physicians becoming killers. It 's about patients whose suffering we can 't relieve and about not turning away from them when they ask for help” says Dr. Peter Rogatz. Assisted suicide isn’t an option for most terminally ill patients and even the patients that to decide they want the prescription, up to 40% of them never even take the pills. All doctors for assisted suicide just want to help their patients from living and dying in pain. Others think that assisted suicide should be legal because it will save the United States and the Government money.

Read More
875 Words | 4 Pages

Moreover, euthanasia may also serve as an option for families to prevent further expenses for patients that only exist due to life support. Aside from that, international codes and laws for human protection against medical

Read More
1286 Words | 6 Pages

Although some patients want to live, they may be forced to take a cheaper option. “Assisted dying could help control health care spending, but he worries about its misuse. ‘There's a good chance of inequality in assisted dying,’ he says, ‘with it being offered most readily to those least able to pay for regular medical care or long term care.” (Worsnop 1992 para 17). People will end up losing their lives over this.

Read More
877 Words | 4 Pages

Euthanasia is the painless killing, usually by injection, of someone usually done by doctors and is illegal in the United States as well as many other countries around the world. This differs from physician-assisted suicide because in physician-assisted suicide a doctor or physician provides means or knowledge required to commit suicide, but the person has to be the one to kill themselves. Both of these situations are viewed as morally wrong in the eyes of the church and many citizens in the U.S. Euthanasia, and physician-assisted suicide, both limit the life of a person based on his or her physical and or emotional health. This process takes away part of a person’s life, shortening God’s plan for that person, and does not allow for miracles to get better. There is no definite way to predict the future but people tend to think that since a person is in pain now, and the person wants to die, nothing can happen that can turn his or her situation

Read More
951 Words | 4 Pages

I. INTRODUCTION: Euthanasia is a social issue in today’s world because not only does it affect the lives of those who are terminally ill and/or comatose, and the physicians who have been entrusted with their care, but it also affects the patient’s ability to have control over their own life, whether they are aware of this decision or not, which is one of the reasons why euthanasia has become such a controversial issue around the globe. Caddell and Newton (1995) define euthanasia as “any treatment initiated by a physician with the intent of hastening the death of another human being who is terminally ill and in severe pain or distress with the motive of relieving that person from great suffering” (p. 1,672). Even though the concept of great

Read More
870 Words | 4 Pages

The word “euthanize” means to bring about a person’s death to relieve them from serious distress. The topic of euthanasia in medicine has evolved since intensive care was first instituted. Before the 1950’s, a simple model was used to determine when someone was dead: the individual was dead when his or her heart stopped beating. In the modern light, the answer to this question isn’t as clear. With advancements in organ transplantation and other medical technologies, the stopping of a beating heart is no longer a definite death sentence.

Read More
3243 Words | 13 Pages

Introduction The controversy over euthanasia has been and still is monumental. Coming from the Greek word euthanatos, meaning good death, good being a technical philosophical term. Euthanasia is the termination of a very ill(usually terminal) patient’s life for the sake of ending their suffering. Weather it be euthanasia or not, the debate on whether this subject is right or wrong has been going on for decades, even centuries.

Read More
1321 Words | 6 Pages

The Right to Die has been taking effect in many states and is rapidly spreading around the world. Patients who have life threatening conditions usually choose to die quickly with the help of their physicians. Many people question this right because of its inhumane authority. Euthanasia or assisted suicide are done by physicians to end the lives of their patients only in Oregon, Washington, Vermont, Montana, New Mexico and soon California that have the Right to Die so that patients don’t have to live with depression, cancer and immobility would rather die quick in peace.

Read More
1512 Words | 7 Pages

Tulloch Gail from Edinburgh University Press said that Euthanasia can be categorized in two respects. First, if patients have requests for medical help injection for themselves, it is called Voluntary Euthanasia and did not a request from patients, it called Involuntary Euthanasia. Second, if the doctor injected into the patient died, it is called Active Euthanasia but if the doctor lets the patient died by themselves, it is called Passive Euthanasia (2005). However, Euthanasia is also illegal in some countries.

Read More
1014 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
1412 Words | 6 Pages

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.

Read More
1443 Words | 6 Pages

The most common location for the euthanasia act is in Netherlands but also in some other locations around the world. In the Netherlands euthanasia is also allowed without a parents or guardians consent. My argument is that I am pro euthanasia just because when you put yourself in a person shoes you would understand what they been through and the suffering pain they endure every day after the cause of illness. My opinion on this topic is that if I was in this predicament I would want to be able to choose whether or not I would like to choose a quick and painless death than suffering from pain and suffering on a daily basis.    The cost for the medication or what the lethal dosing item is less than 100 dollars but the cost of a assisted suicide can cost up to 100,000 dollars just to insure proper care of the patient to help the family in grief.

Read More

More about Seneca's Argument Against Euthanasia

Related Topics

Open Document