ipl-logo

Why Is Euthanasia Morally Wrong

1121 Words5 Pages

It is of no opposition that doctors are life savers. Physicians do all that they can to ensure that the patient they are caring for is being treated to prolong their life and well being. With that being said, what if the doctor takes the necessary steps in doing the complete opposite? At first, this idea seems hardly permissible. Yet some might say in a situation where the patient's death is inevitable, why draw out their pain and suffering? Hence we get into the delicate and complex situation of euthanasia. There are two forms of euthanasia: active and passive. Active euthanasia is where a medical professional consciously takes action that causes the patient to die. Such as administering a lethal dose of something toxic that would quickly …show more content…

It states that “the intentional termination of the life of one human being by another” is morally wrong and that a doctor shouldn’t take action in taking their patient's life. Yet, it then goes to say that ending treatment is not “the intentional termination of the life of one human being by another”. Yet if treatment is needed to keep the patient alive and denying them treatment is going to kill them, its is contradictioning the statement completely. Mercy killing is thought to be wrong, but passively allowing the patient to die is the morally correct thing to do? As he has previously identified, there is no real difference between killing and letting …show more content…

Prolonging the life of someone who it will not benefit from it is what she calls this extraordinary treatment. The example she provides is giving a brain-dead patient in a coma a respirator. Ordinary treatment would be treating a patient who will potentially be cured of the illness that they posses. Such as using the respirator in the previous example for a patient that has a critical case of a respiratory disease. It makes the AMA policy become more transparent due to the fact that giving treatment that won’t help the patient long term means we’re not supplying an extraordinary means of

Show More
Related

Physician Assisted Suicide Summary

1953 Words | 8 Pages

Gill argues that keeping a person healthy cannot be a physician’s only moral duty because in cases of terminal ill patients, they can no longer be treated or healed (372). If a physician’s only duty were to heal patients then they would not tend to the terminally ill because there would be nothing else that they could do, which is something that most people would find to be morally wrong (Gill, 373). No one would be okay with a doctor not helping a person at all who has received a terminal sentence. So instead of promoting health in this case, the physicians must find a way to reduce the suffering of the patient. This means that the physician should be able to reduce the suffering in the way that the patient asks for.

Read More

Teresa And Terrence Summary

825 Words | 4 Pages

Both patients are choosing to die and taking deliberate measures to do so by changing the routine(s) of their treatment. If the means to die by stopping medication are permissible, the means to die by taking medication ought to be permissible. The advent of technology has made many contributions to sustain life. However, before this technology, many people would die without years of suffering. Today, people with critical illnesses are given the option to stop treatment in order to hasten death.

Read More

Analysis Of Ken Murray's Essay 'How Doctors Die'

526 Words | 3 Pages

In 2011, Dr. Ken Murray wrote How Doctors Die. It was a powerful (and viral) essay that explained the way physicians viewed end-of-life care. He wrote: “Of course, doctors don’t want to die; they want to live. But they know enough about modern medicine to know its limits.” It is these limits that he uses to describe what medical professionals call “futile care” which is somewhat of a last-ditch attempt to prolong life.

Read More

Why Is Physician Assisted Suicide Morally Wrong

156 Words | 1 Pages

Conclusion I have argued that even though a physician killing an untreatable patient and a physician letting a patient die upon their request are both morally justifiable, the distinction between the two regarding the morality of physician assisted suicide is important because they are both justified differently. I have presented two counter arguments based on consequentialism, and argued that both of them untrue. A physician killing an untreatable patient upon their request and letting an untreatable patient die upon their request are both justifiable aspects of physician assisted suicide, and therefore it is not an important distinction to make regarding the moral permissibility of physician assisted suicide. However, it is an important

Read More

Physician Assisted Suicide Analysis

1013 Words | 5 Pages

In the documentary, Bill Moyers talks to three terminally ill patients, their families, and their doctors about the concerns with physician-assisted suicide (PAS). PAS allows a terminally ill patient to hasten an inevitable and unavoidable death through a lethal dose. The patients considered PAS in order to end their prolonged suffering. The legal role of advance directives in end of life issues allows a patient to specify how he wishes to be treated by a healthcare provider during a progressively weakened state. Advance directives may provide patients with freedom to choose end of life treatment, but moral and religious implications, the ethical battle between a physician’s duty to care and inner-conscious, and state laws pose threats to PAS.

Read More

Physician Assisted Death Argumentative Essay

814 Words | 4 Pages

Their argument is that the medical practice of physician-assisted death is unethical because it violates the bioethical principle of nonmaleficence, which refers to the obligation of the physician to not cause needless harm. Physician-assisted death is not causing needless harm because the patient themselves is requesting the death-dealing medication and taking them, or not taking them, when, and if, they feel ready to die. It would be needless harm if the physician in question actively euthanatized the patient by administering the death-dealing medications without the patient’s consent. However, from a legal standpoint, physician-assisted death does not include active euthanasia, which is illegal in all fifty states; it simply requires the physician to provide the mentally competent patient with the information they asked for regarding the process and a prescription for the death dealing medication. The physician is not causing needless harm to a terminally ill patient who wishes to die mercifully on their own time instead of six months down the line in possible pain and suffering.

Read More

Physician Assisted Suicide Research Paper

536 Words | 3 Pages

The oath requires that doctors do no harm to their patients. However, when debating the issue of physician-assisted suicide, one must consider what doing harm actually means. It is here that a profound ethical quandary is present, because many people believe that causing a patient’s death is doing

Read More

Physician Assisted Suicide Persuasive Speech

1697 Words | 7 Pages

In claiming that the procedure allows patients to have dignity at death is flawed because the purpose of the medical profession is to ensure a dignified life. In accordance with the physician’s code of ethics or Hippocratic oath, physicians are not allowed to do harm to their patients because their role is to provide a dignified life with health to the community. Instead of helping people kill themselves, we should offer them premium medical care and solace human presence.

Read More

Medicare Is A Problem Based Model

1136 Words | 5 Pages

The goals of the medical model are to cure, restore function, and prolong life even if that does not include a cure for the problem at hand. The prolonging of life also brings other issues into light. By prolonging life, you could also be prolonging death. The issue with this is that some people may not wanting this to occur. In the “Cost of Dying” video, Steve Kroft reports that “a vast majority of people want to die at home, 75% of people die in a hospital or nursing home”

Read More

Physician Assisted Suicide Argumentative Essay

1149 Words | 5 Pages

With the help of a doctor, the terminally ill patient can die in peace and hopefully free of pain. Today, assisted suicide has

Read More

A Rhetorical Analysis Of Euthanasia By Philippa Foot

937 Words | 4 Pages

The possible legalization of euthanasia can cause a great disturbance in how people view life and death and the simplicity of how they would treat it. "There are many fairly severely handicapped people for whom a simple, affectionate life is possible." (Foot, p. 94) As demonstrated, the decision of terminating a person 's life is a very fragile and difficult one, emotionally and mentally. Nevertheless, it’s a choice we can make if it is passive euthanasia being expressed.

Read More

Examples Of Euthanasia In Grey's Anatomy

1770 Words | 8 Pages

The most dramatic example of passive euthanasia occurs in the episode “Sympathy for the Parents”, which follows the one discussed earlier in this essay. A woman, Allison, comes into the hospital with her husband, Gary, after fainting and discovers that her cancer has returned. She undergoes a surgery to remove the tumor in her abdominal cavity and the surgery is successful. However, after the surgery, she is unable to breath on her own and the surgeons discover a brain hemorrhage that is inoperable. Allison is in an irreversible coma with no brain activity and her heart is unable to beat without the help of machines.

Read More

Examples Of Passive Euthanasia

547 Words | 3 Pages

Some people having living wills on what they want for end of life care or of it would happen unexpectedly. It is still a strong debate amongst people when it is Active and Passive euthanasia. Active Euthanasia is when one takes action, such as using lethal injection. A Passive Euthanasia is when someone doesn’t intervene; as such a hospital does nothing to further to save a person’s life which is called the DNR code status. Are these choices different?

Read More

Ethical Essay: The Role Of Euthanasia In Medicine

870 Words | 4 Pages

Active euthanasia is killing a patient who requests to die. For example, a patient with a terminal illness may wish to end their battle. To fulfill these wishes the physician may administer a lethal injection. Except in special circumstances, it is illegal to deliberately cause the death of another person. I contend that life is a gift from God and he has the ultimate power to decide when to take this privilege away.

Read More

Argumentative Essay On Euthanasia

1149 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More

More about Why Is Euthanasia Morally Wrong

Related Topics

Open Document