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The Controversy Between Euthanasia And Assisted Suicide

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In the 21st Century many bioethical issues have come into debate and question on whether they are ethical or not. One of these issues that has been a currents issue is euthanasia. Euthanasia is sometimes thought to be the same as assisted suicide, but they differ in certain aspects of each. Euthanasia as defined by The Patients Rights Council is, “knowingly and directly acting to cause the death of another person (e.g., giving a lethal injection)” , while PRC defines assisted suicide as,” intentionally, knowingly and directly providing the means of death to another person so that the person can use that means to commit suicide (e.g., providing a prescription for a lethal dose of drugs)”.. There are different types of euthanasia used active …show more content…

Active euthanasia is administering lethal ways to kill, such as lethal injection , while passive euthanasia is withholding substances that are necessary for life to continue, such as a medicine or antibiotic needed to live. Euthanasia can also be conducted voluntary , non-voluntary , or involuntary depending on the state of the patient it being administered on. Voluntary euthanasia is when the patient willingly consents to the act of being euthanized either passively or actively. This type of euthanasia is legal is certain parts of the world either actively or passively. Non-voluntary euthanasia is when the patient being euthanised can not o does not have the ability to consent with the euthanasia. This type of euthanasia is illegal, but with special circumstances in parts of the world. Involuntary euthanasia is when the patient being euthanised does not willingly consent to being euthanised. These different types of …show more content…

People who believe euthanasia is unethical are considered pro-life, and use the arguments of it being against their religious views, devaluing human life, and the”slippery slope”effect. The arguments of being anti euthanasia from conflicting with religious views are mostly people who are followers of the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. They use the argument of the ”sanctity of life” , that God's creations are sacred, so therefore human life is sacred, and by ending human life is destroying God’s creation. People also use the religious argument of euthanasia acting or taking the role of God. They believe that God alone can choose when to give and take away life, and that when people perform euthanasia they are trying to be god and are committing a sin against God. People also use the argument of how it is wrong to value the quality of life over the sanctity of life, as a way to show how euthanasia is wrong. People also use the “Slippery slope” as argument and risk of euthanasia. The “slippery slope” argument is the idea that there might be reasons that people do euthanasia for reasons of a misdiagnosis or to not be a burden or that if people with terminal illnesses choose euthanasia, there will no reason to research or find cures for their terminal

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The Slippery Slope argument also suggests if euthanasia is legalised then it will not just be to those with a terminal illness. It will gradually include more and more people into the category for those who euthanasia is acceptable for: such as it may start to include people with emotional suffering or common disabilities. Also going down the road of the slippery slope argument people believe euthanasia will stop people looking into palliative care treatments and stop people from looking for cures to terminal illnesses. Most Christians would argue that we should not legalise euthanasia they do not think it is right. When I interviewed students from Wheaton High School (Chicago) they said they disagree with euthanasia because we would be ruining God’s plan.

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David Benatar, a professor in the Philosophy Department at the University of Cape Town in South Africa discusses the 2 arguments that those who would deny a patient the legal right to euthanasia or Physician assisted suicide (PAS) as an advocate for it. The two arguments are the “slippery slope” argument and the dangers of abuse argument. Dr. Benatar’s viewpoint would allow us to see a defenders viewpoint from an aspect that does not discuss why euthanasia or (PAS) should be allowed from a non-traditional viewpoint of individual rights. In the article “A legal right to die: responding to slippery slope and abuse arguments” gives a brief understanding of the two arguments with reasoning to back up such claims. As for the first argument, he states that a slippery slope is basically your argument based on the moral and ethical aspect of things with a claim of that if a specific action such as euthanasia were permitted it would be irrevocably led to allowing various doings that are considered morally wrong.

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These criteria are that the person has made a request to end their life, it is thought that this patient is mentally capable to make this decision for himself, and that it is agreed that there is no prospect for an improvement in this patient’s condition (NHS). Voluntary euthanasia can be regarded as voluntary manslaughter (NHS). “Involuntary euthanasia is conducted without consent. The decision is made by another person because the patient is incapable of doing so himself/herself” (2015). Involuntary euthanasia can be regarded as murder (NHS).

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The three consequences seen all over the world are “the inevitability of some abuse of the law; the difficulty of precisely writing, and then enforcing, the law; and the inherent slipperiness of the moral reasons for legalizing euthanasia in the first place” (Callahan, 1992, p. 384). Abusing the law is inevitable because someone will disagree with it or act oblivious to it and also because the law is not enforced properly in the “criminal justice system” (Callahan, 1992, p. 384). The law of euthanasia is difficult to “write and then enforce” because many of the terms throughout the law we are unable to define (Callahan, 1992, 348). Such as “a requirement that a medical condition be terminal will run aground on the notorious difficulties of know when an illness is actually terminal” (Callahan, 1992, 384). There is no way to assure that all of the individuals will be offered several different alternatives for finding a solution to any disagreements.

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Involuntary passive euthanasia is when life-supporting therapy is withheld from the patient against their wishes. non-voluntary euthanasia is if a patient has a life threating illness and cannot communicate with the doctors and the doctors think withdrawing the patient from life supporting therapy is the best choice. For the most part, passive euthanasia is legal and usually

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The purpose of this essay is to identify the moral distinction that lies between active and passive euthanasia. Through the analysis of the moral ethics, it is believed that James Rachels is wrong to argue that there is no moral difference between the two types of euthanasia. The moral difference is evaluated through the principle cause, intent and motive of active and passive euthanasia, which clearly distinguishes these two actions apart. The principle cause of passive euthanasia is the illness itself in comparison to the physician directly causing death through the prescription of drugs in active euthanasia. The intent in active euthanasia is to kill, whereas passive euthanasia does not intend for the patient to die.

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the slippery slope is the fear that if legalised, euthanasia will lead from voluntary to non voluntary or involuntary practices. The Church has seen first hand the effects of the legalisation of euthanasia in Belgium, Belgium has deemed that voluntary as well as involuntary to be normal practice and accepted in their own society. Belgium allows people above the age of 16 to be euthanized if they have a incurable disease, the disease does net have to be deemed deadly either. The country has gone so far in allowing and promoting euthanasia that they are now euthanizing down syndrome children at birth. Not only does this seem immoral in the eyes of the church, it breaks one of the key ethical principles of the catholic church.

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Voluntary is euthanasia conducted with consent. Involuntary is euthanasia conducted without consent, which is if somebody is unable to make the decision themselves someone else does. There are also two types of procedural euthanasia, passive and active. Passive is when a life saving

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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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The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines euthanasia as the act or practice of killing someone who is very sick or injured in order to prevent any more suffering. There are two types of euthanasia, active and passive. Christian Nordqvist states, “Active euthanasia includes life-ending actions conducted by the patient or somebody else.” Active is when the patient decides or has already decided to be medically killed. Nordqvist defines passive as, “a mode of ending life in which a physician is given an option not to prescribe futile treatments for the hopelessly ill patient.”

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In other words, they don't directly take the patient's life and just allow them to die. Other than that, voluntary euthanasia occurs when the person is asking for help with dying, refusing burdensome medical treatment, asking for medical treatment to be stopped, or life support

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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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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.

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(Pavone, n.d.). There are two main classifications of euthanasia, which are: voluntary euthanasia, and involuntary euthanasia. Voluntary euthanasia is the euthanasia made by the choice of the patient, while the involuntary euthanasia is the euthanasia made by another person and not the patient, because in this situation the patient is incapable to do so himself. There are two main procedures

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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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