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What Does It Mean To Say That Euthanasia Should Not Be Law

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Recommended: Ethical principle of respect for the autonomy of the patient

“Only a morally bankrupt society would not allow euthanasia.” Euthanasia is the painless killing of a patient that suffers from an incurable and painful disease or an irreversible coma. Euthanasia can also be considered as mercy killing and assisted suicide. While it may be true that many patients that are in severe pain may request for euthanasia towards their suffering life, the real point to consider is doctors oath to be heroes not murders, patient’s mindset, religious beliefs, and grasping hope of life. Doctors in the medical field believe that euthanasia should not be law because it goes against everything they believe in. People who are becoming doctors must take a Hippocratic oath that it's their duty to save life not end it. According to Terminal Illness, “Physicians should not honor such a request [as euthanasia]. While doctors are obliged to respect the desires of patients and family, the choice of death over life cannot be viewed as just another choice of medicine is to maintain its moral structure.” (William 146). With that ethical dilemma, many doctors are being put in a compromising situation that causes them to either …show more content…

They are making the decisions while in unbearable pain which can alter their judgment. According to Terminal Illness, “People diagnosed with terminal illness are confronted with painful difficult choices. They must make decisions about potentially life, the right to die, and emotional issues affecting their family and loved ones” (Williams 80). When faced with a decision in life -- big or small -- we try to make the best choice. However, sometimes, despite our good intentions, we make bad choices. The server pain of making the decision can be what sets us up for failure. This hard-wired pain and stress of doing the wrong thing can lead to a great it affects that choices are turn to

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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.

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Introduction People have moral and ethical values that assist them in making decisions about their healthcare on a daily basis. What if a person found out that they had a terminal illness and only had months to live? What if those few months would be filled with treatments, pain and suffering, tear filled family members, and high cost medical bills? Physician- assisted suicide remains a debated topic which causes physicians, nurses and those involved to take a look at what they value and what they are willing to do in order to carry out a patient’s wishes.

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When a terminally ill patient undergoes long and grueling unsuccessful treatments, the patient may lose a sense of hope for living and accept their death. Then they may go on to wanting control over their death and leading a patient to pursue PAS. Terminally ill patients are usually weak, tired, and uncomfortable. These are some of the main factors that qualify a patient for PAS because they interfere and prevent the patient from having a good quality of life. In addition, a patient may request PAS to lessen the financial burden of unnecessary medical procedures.

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Families may also take selfish actions by not wanting to continue paying the medical costs to keep the person alive because that money they are spending would eventually become their inheritance. Families and doctors may also feel regret from the assisted death because they may have been able to live through the disease or illness. An example from one of Dr. Jack Kevorkian's patients proved that a wrong diagnosis could make the use of euthanasia a huge mistake. One of his patients had “committed suicide” with his assistance, because she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. It was later discovered after an autopsy was completed on the patient, that she in fact did not have Multiple Sclerosis and if she would have had a second opinion done, she most likely would have made a completely different choice in dealing with her issue.

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Should Physician-Assisted Suicide be Encouraged? For several years, physicians and patients have argued that a legal form of suicide should be legalized. Many of the patients who support this idea are in critical condition and for many of the physicians, this is their last resort. While some support this idea, others argue that this is not a logical stance to take. The concept that has swept and divided the nation is perceived as “Assisted Suicide”.

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One of the more pressing social/medical issues of recent times has been euthanasia, also known as physician-assisted suicide, or the right to die. Proponents of human euthanasia propose that those with a terminal illness should have the right to a clean and painless death with the assistance of a physician, rather than the drawn-out and painful natural death that some will otherwise experience. Being one who was raised in a Christian family, I am morally opposed to suicide in all forms, and I strongly believe a human life is sacred enough that a physician should not be granted the permission or power to take it. Many oppose this act for various reasons: religious in nature, moral grounds, or by medical tradition. Some argue that euthanasia does in fact contradict a professional code of ethics.

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Physician-assisted suicide is a very controversial topic in today’s society. Physician-assisted suicide is defined as an action performed by the physician at the request of the patient to end the patient’s life with certain medical procedures. The legalization of physician-assisted suicide should not be passed in the United States because it is not morally acceptable in the society, leads to misunderstanding of a physician’s duty and increases mental suffering of both patient’s family and doctor. Physician-assisted suicide should not be legalized since the action itself is not justified morally. It is never morally acceptable for the society to give up on its people’s lives.

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Do you feel that taking care of terminally ill or elderly patients has become a major ethical dilemma? Yes, totally it has become an ethical dilemma for both physicians and patient’s families. To begin, end-of-life care can be incredibly expensive and emotionally draining to both the patient and his/her family. Many families take on the “do everything mentality” says, Anthony to prolong the patient’s suffering instead of his or her meaningful life span.

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If they want a trained medical doctor to safely and peacefully end their life, then that is their decision. Many people feel that this choice may be helpful to patients who are tired of struggling, however others think that this solution will not solve anything and only cause more harm. Although some individuals feel it is devaluing

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Doctors are trained to save lives, not end a life. During the process to become a doctor, they all must take an oath. According to the Los Angeles Times, the oath states, “I will give no deadly medicine to anyone if asked, nor suggest any such counsel.” Yet, the act of mercy killing is the total opposite of the pledge they take.

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I am a member of an ethics committee that decides if a given treatment for a patient is ethical or not. “Euthanasia suicide, mercy killing, use of the living will, and "do not resuscitate" (DNR) orders, all involve professionals who must make decisions based on personal values and ethical principles rather than on the law.” (Albright & Hazel, 2006, para. 3). This is a big responsibility to make decisions regarding a person’s life or death especially in a quick matter. Do I really want to take a person’s life in my hands and help them end it prematurely?

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Doctors are here to help people, not for someone to judge their own health. “If the current generation of medical professionals makes this a possibility, it would change the very character of the practice of medicine. The physician would no longer be purely a healer but would be an executioner as well” (Orr 6). Doctors encouraging euthanasia could unintentionally affects one’s health. Patients who would never consider it, would feel uncomfortable and scared knowing they could get persuade to do so.

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Treatment withheld for a merciful death, in other words, euthanasia means an easy and gentle death that allows the patient to die with dignity without enduring protracted death or suffering from pain. Everyone has the right to choose and be subjected to euthanasia. However, when the patient is comatose or too young to make decision for himself, non-voluntary euthanasia will be undertaken while the responsibility for the decision-making will then be passed on to another person who is able to look into the interest of the patient. As such, it should be the doctors-in-charge, rather than his family members. The intention of the family members’ decision to let the patient die may be motivated and driven by their financial pressure or even selfish

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They base their judgement on their own experiences, laboratory results and evaluation, then after considering all options, they advise patients to undergo euthanasia as their resort in battling the disease. Most physicians when suggesting euthanasia do not have any selfish desires rooted within them and they genuinely do have compassion for their patients as they experience first-hand what their patient have to go through. Probably, for this small percentage of physicians, euthanasia is really the best solution to their patient’s problems. Since many patients do place a lot of trust in their doctors, they may take up the option of

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Euthanasia, also known as assisted suicide, is the act of permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured patients. This is never suggested by the caretaker rather than requested by the patient or their family. Few areas such as the Netherlands have already legalized this practice. This debate, as split as a fork in the road, is over whether or not this approach should be legalized worldwide on stances regarding religion, ethics, and self choice.     I see this as being extremely unethical on both religious and social morality levels.

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