...Christian decision. Mainline and Liberal Christian denominations: Pro-choice statements have been made by the United Church of Christ, and the Methodist Church on the US West coast. The 'Episcopalian (Anglican) Unitarian, Methodist, Presbyterian and Quaker movements are amongst the most liberal, allowing at least individual decision making in cases of active euthanasia The BBC wrote in an Aug. 3, 2009 online article titled "Religion & Ethics - Christianity: Euthanasia - the Christian View" on www.bbc.co.uk: "Christians are mostly against euthanasia. The arguments are usually based on the beliefs that life is given by God, and that human beings are made in God's image. Some churches also emphasise the importance of not interfering with the natural process of death... Christians believe that the intrinsic dignity and value of human lives means that the value of each human life is identical. They don't think that human dignity and value are measured by mobility, intelligence, or any achievements in life. Valuing human beings as equal just because they are human beings has clear implications for thinking about euthanasia: • patients in a persistent vegetative state, although seriously damaged, remain living human beings, and so their intrinsic value remains the same as anyone else's • so it would be wrong to treat their lives as worthless and to conclude that they 'would be better off dead' • patients who are old or sick, and who are near the end of earthly life...
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...lightly. He is the only one that gets to call the shots on how our lives should be controlled. It might mean to continue living your life with the utmost humility or it might mean meeting the Lord before some of your family members and friends do. I am a firm believer in the fact that life should begin and end at the will of the Lord. So of course, I think euthanasia is immorally wrong. The American people need to know that history shows that euthanasia is inhumane, that the Catholic Church sees it as a debatable issue, and that it seems that the United States view on euthanasia has probably remained the same throughout the years. The definition of euthanasia has stayed the same throughout the years. So, it seems the definition does not change with the times. Euthanasia is the intentional killing or omission of a dependent human being for his or her alleged benefit. Euthanasia takes a life, not saves one. There is more than one way to end a person’s life. First, there is euthanasia by action. This is when a person is intentionally causing a person’s death by performing an action such as by giving a lethal injection. Euthanasia by action is an action that should not be taken by another human...
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...life, even though that person may be in immense amount of pain and rather die. This is where the debate over legalizing euthanasia comes in. Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are very similar, however, dissimilar at the same time. In all technicality, physician-assisted suicide is the active form of euthanasia, and it gained popularity after the largely controversial case of Dr. Jack Kevorkian. Comprehending the basic knowledge of euthanasia and its history will help one to understand why euthanasia is not such an unacceptable practice, but also why legalizing euthanasia can benefit many people. Euthanasia is derived from “the Greek word for ‘good death’” (Terri). This “may imply that the Greeks and Romans who coined the term agreed on the basic issues [of euthanasia although,] history shows on us that this is not the case” (McDougall 3). Until Christianity came about, if the person is suffering from immense pain and/or the quality of life is futile, a physician’s duty to kill was equated to the duty to heal. Unfortunately, euthanasia received a much more dramatic, negative reputation in Germany in the 1920s when people “who were handicapped, mentally ill, or in asylums … were killed in a program secretly approved by the government” (McDougall 5). This then lead to Adolf Hitler’s propaganda, which further the horrid image of euthanasia, though, euthanasia is indubitably not use to intentionally kill the impoverished...
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...person's right to die, otherwise it would not be a right to life in the true sense of the term. But there is a legal battle going on in America right now over whether or not a person has a right to die. Does the government have the right to prolong your life by artificial means whether you desire it or not? With the passing of this law nationwide, you, as the voter will simply be saying, “It is YOUR choice” (Patashnik, 2004) The issue of “Having a Personal Right to Die,” has been long simmered beneath the surface in legal and political circles: under what circumstances do terminally injured and ill Americans have the right to choose to die? The Supreme Court made a definitive statement in the landmark 1990 case Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Dept. of Health that severely injured patients have a constitutional right to refuse medical treatment and die. But the court also ruled that states can require "clear and convincing" evidence of a patient's intent to forgo medical treatment, a rather high evidentiary standard to meet. History The actual word for “having a right to die” is Euthanasia. According to Dictionary.com, euthanasia is defined as the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering. The concept of Euthanasia goes as far back as 1870, when Samuel Williams, a schoolteacher, initiated the contemporary euthanasia debate through a speech given at the Birmingham Speculative Club, which was subsequently published in a one-off publication...
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...Euthanasia is a unique practice of ending the life of an individual suffering from a terminal disease/illness or an incurable condition by means of the suspension of extraordinary medical treatment or lethal injection. The history of this penomena dates back for centuries, but it wasn’t until 1906 when the first bill to legalize euthanasia in America was introduced in the Ohio legislature. For several years, legislatures have been turning down bills aimed at the legalization of euthanasia in the United States. In 1937, the Nebraska legislature voted down a bill legalizing voluntary active euthanasia in the U.S. Only two years later, the New York legislature rejected a bill that was also aimed at the legalization of euthanasia in the United States. “In 1991 the Washington State Initiative Bill legalizing voluntary euthanasia was narrowly defeated.” (6) In 1994, Oregon passed a law to allow doctors to prescribe lethal drugs, but an injunction prevented it from taking effect. As of today, euthanasia is illegal in almost every country. In fact, it is only legal in the state of Oregon and the Netherlands. These are the only two places in the world where laws specifically permit euthanasia or assisted suicide. Oregon permits assisted suicide while the Netherlands permits both euthanasia and assisted suicide. In 1995, Australia’s northern territory approved a euthanasia bill which went into effect in 1996, but it was overturned by the Australian Parliament in 1997. “Also, in 1997...
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...Euthanasia should be legalized Euthanasia has always been a controversial issue not only in America but Internationally. Is it moral? Ethical? And should it be legalized? Before answering any of these questions, one perhaps needs to get some straight facts about Euthanasia or “Assisted Suicide”. “Euthanasia: Euthanasia is the intentional killing by act or omission of a dependent human being for his or her alleged benefit. Voluntary euthanasia: When the person who is killed has requested to be killed. Non-voluntary: When the person who is killed made no request and gave no consent. Involuntary euthanasia: When the person who is killed made an expressed wish to the contrary. Assisted suicide: Someone provides an individual with the information, guidance, and means to take his or her own life with the intention that they will be used for this purpose. When it is a doctor who helps another person to kill themselves it is called "physician assisted suicide." Euthanasia by Action: Intentionally causing a person's death by performing an action such as by giving a lethal injection.. Euthanasia by Omission: Intentionally causing death by not providing necessary and ordinary (usual and customary) care or food and water.” (http://www.nrlc.org) Physician assisted suicide might sound horribly to a normal person with no knowledge about the practice itself. There are many little factors that must be count into consideration when such operations are performed. Voluntary vs. Involuntary...
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...Medical Ethics and Euthanasia In his essay “When Medicine Is Futile” Barron H. Lerner talks about how dying patients in America, in his opinion can not have a peaceful death. Important role in his writing represents his dad and his thinking. He has a big influence on Lerner`s opinion about the medicine in general. He argues that people die too many times connected to all kinds of machines and tubes that don`t really help them. Lerner describes some of the stories that his father kept in the journals. They have one common thing, and that is that event though the doctors knew the patients is going to die, his family was still hoping for a miracle and they did not want to accept that there is nothing that the doctors can do, to save the patient`s life. Reading and thinking about Lerner`s article lead me to ask myself; is it really true that there are no chances at all to save any patient? I think we should all still keep faith and stay optimistic that things will go better, no matter what situation we find ourselves in. In connection to that when we think about medicine, here comes the controversial problem about euthanasia. Should it be legalized and what are the pros and cons of it? Euthanasia is one of the most pressing issues of modern society. The development of medicine has put humanity against serious dilemma where the use of medical resources no longer offers the cure. As it is developing in many areas, there are still those areas where we ask ourselves; what to do...
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...Living Wills and Euthanasia Penny Hockensmith Social Ethics PHI 320 Professor Haussmann May 30th, 2012 A) It is good to be in control of my medical. B. An informed living will prescribes my medical decisions when I am unconscious. C. A living will is good. Should living wills over ride doctors and caretakers? THE STORY Imagine someone you love or better yet, imagine yourself lying in a hospital bed oblivious to the world around you, unable to move or show any signs of life, your own existence controlled by an I.V., a respiratory machine, and a feeding tube. In essence you are dead. Your body is no longer able to sustain life, its entire purpose is now replaced by a machine - you are being kept alive by artificial means. At this point the question arises - should you be kept alive by these means or should you be allowed to die a natural death? Unfortunately you are unable to answer this question because your voice is limited to a "beep" on a heart monitor machine. Who then is going to decide if you live artificially or die naturally? Who gets to play God? Well, if your family doesn't have your written consent in the form of a living will, to cease life support, then the doctor will make the ultimate decision for both you and your family. Most often this is the case. Even though writing a living will is just as easy if not easier than writing a death will, many people don't take the time to do so. Therefore, doctors have to debate the question of euthanasia – a question...
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...Euthanasia is a word coined from the Greek language, Eu meaning good or noble; Thanatos meaning death, in the seventeenth century by Francis Bacon to refer to an easy, painless, happy death. (Singer) Within euthanasia, there are two types. Active and passive. Active euthanasia occurs when a medical professional or another person deliberately does something to cause the death of a patient. Passive euthanasia occurs when a medical professional either stops doing something that is keeping a patient alive or they don’t do something necessary to keep a patient alive. Like switching off life support or disconnecting a feeding tube. A term that is commonly confused, but is similar to euthanasia, is physician assisted suicide. Although the results and reasoning’s behind each type of death is the same, they differ in the way that the death is administered. In euthanasia, the physician performs the intervention. Usually with a lethal dose of a powerful drug such as morphine or Pentobarbital. During physician assisted suicide, the drug, and means of delivery, are given to the patient by the physician. However, the patient accomplishes the act of injection. Leading to his or her own death (A General History Of Euthanasia) The first time euthanasia was reported on record was around 400BC by Suetonius, a Roman historian, while describing the death of Augustus Caesar. Although the actions of an easy, painless death have been used on hopeless patients since ancient times, these acts have been...
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...of death, but they refused. Euthanasia is a physician or others ‘killing’ of a suffering patient in attempt to hasten death and alleviate pain. In the game of life and death: life is the most obvious answer one would think. This is not always the case, so euthanasia or assisted suicide is an extremely controversial topic of today. It has many wondering if death really is the answer is some cases. What if one finds themselves terminally ill, in excruciating pain, and no longer wishes to waste their life withering away in a hospital bed. Due to these reasons, certain forms of assisted suicide should be considered legal. Euthanasia is advantageous in many more ways than disadvantageous. It can help a patient in numerous ways: it can stop suffering and cause an impending death to come sooner and thus save a lot of heartache and pain. It is a fact that there are many diseases out there that can cause a patient excruciating amount of pain. For instance, blood cancer can include symptoms such as bone fractures, repeated infections, and persisting bruises. If a patient tries every possible way to fight a disease but hits a dead end, it will simply be better to meet death in a dignified manner than die in a hospital bed not recognizing the person you’ve withered away to. Life is hard to live with any sort of terminal illness, in many cases death may be the better answer. Not letting people practice Euthanasia goes against the freedom promised in America. Every person in this...
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...of death, but they refused. Euthanasia is a physician or others ‘killing’ of a suffering patient in attempt to hasten death and alleviate pain. In the game of life and death: life is the most obvious answer one would think. This is not always the case, so euthanasia or assisted suicide is an extremely controversial topic of today. It has many wondering if death really is the answer is some cases. What if one finds themselves terminally ill, in excruciating pain, and no longer wishes to waste their life withering away in a hospital bed. Due to these reasons, certain forms of assisted suicide should be considered legal. Euthanasia is advantageous in many more ways than disadvantageous. It can help a patient in numerous ways: it can stop suffering and cause an impending death to come sooner and thus save a lot of heartache and pain. It is a fact that there are many diseases out there that can cause a patient excruciating amount of pain. For instance, blood cancer can include symptoms such as bone fractures, repeated infections, and persisting bruises. If a patient tries every possible way to fight a disease but hits a dead end, it will simply be better to meet death in a dignified manner than die in a hospital bed not recognizing the person you’ve withered away to. Life is hard to live with any sort of terminal illness, in many cases death may be the better answer. Not letting people practice Euthanasia goes against the freedom promised in America. Every person in...
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...Physician-assisted suicide also known as PAS, is a controversial topic everywhere; some believe if a patient is terminally ill then it should be permissible while others believe it is against their beliefs and religion to commit any type of suicide. Physician-assisted suicide is when a patient requests the help of digesting a lethal drug to quicken their death (United States Physician Assisted Suicide Law Summary and Law Digest par. 1). The most common patients to request assisted suicide are patients with cancer and AIDs. Active euthanasia is sometimes also considered physician-assisted suicide because it results in death from someone purposely doing something to the patient causing them to die; such as being injected with poison. Passive euthanasia is the withholding of a medical treatment for a patient, which is legal, but many come to be disagreed upon. Withholding food and water, turning off machines, and failing to resuscitate are prime examples of passive euthanasia (United States Physician Assisted Suicide Law Summary and Law Digest par. 1). There are currently three states that permit physician-assisted suicide, Washington and Oregon. On October 27, 1997, the Death with Dignity Act was passed in Oregon. The Death with Dignity Act states that an Oregonian that is terminally-ill has the right to voluntarily, self-administrate lethal medications with a prescription from their physician. On March 5, 2009, Washington passed the Death with Dignity Act and on December 31, 2009 Montana...
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...Dynamics of Ethics L. M. BSHS/322 Professional, Ethical, and Legal Issues In Human Service June 23, 2012 Dynamics of Ethics In today’s society many individuals are faced with having to choose between what is ethical and what is not. One thing that a remains pressing as it relates to ethical issues are the dynamics that surrounds them. In this paper I would like to discuss the current issues surrounding euthanasia. Implementing euthanasia comes with many compelling arguments, often times this issue involves individuals rights, politics, ethics, and religion. Although this debate is far from over I would like to take an objective view and discuss the ends and outs of euthanasia. Attempts to authorize euthanasia and assisted suicide have occurred in “the U.S for the last twenty years (Euthanasia in the United States Wikipedia, 2012).” For illustration in 2005 Religious Leaders committed to standing firm in their beliefs by stating “assisting suicide and euthanasia will radically change the social air we all breathe by severely undermining respect of life (Euthanasia in the United States, 2012).” Clearly leaders at this time strongly opposed allowing suffering individuals the right to end their life. “In 2006 The House of Lords blocked a bill that would allow terminally ill people to be helped to die” (BBC Ethics, 2012). This particular bill led to a heated discussion on whether or not it is right to allow people to take their own life. Joffe stated in a pressing debate that...
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...disease. Therefore, many patients with incurable illnesses have made a decision that they believe was right for them. This righteous act was known to be part of Euthanasia, which is considered being “the Right to Die”. So what is Euthanasia? In Greek language, the word “Euthanasia” eu means "good" and thanatos means "death". One meaning given to the word is "the intentional termination of life by another at the explicit request of the person who dies." Therefore, the term euthanasia practically means that the act must be initiated or agreed upon by the person who wishes to commit suicide. But as a disagreement, some people define euthanasia to include both voluntary and involuntary termination of life. In his book Unplugged: Reclaiming Our Right to Die in America, William Colby states that "euthanasia" defines multiple meanings and yet, leads to a massive confusion. For example, for today’s world, it is defined as the “intentional killing by act or omission of a dependent human being for his or her alleged benefit.” This literally means that if death is not intended, then it is not an act of euthanasia. Others would also recognize it as “mercy killing” or “physician-assisted suicide”. Now many will ask themselves how it is affecting our society and the ethics involved with Euthanasia. Moreover, this procedure of Euthanasia not only affects the moralities of human beings but also the important role of the medical practice. My major is to become a nurse in the medical field. And...
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...Euthanasia: A Moral Dilemma The word euthanasia is derived from two Greek words, “eu” which means “good” and “thanatos” which means “death,” thus, you have the translation “good death.” For many, when faced with a terminal disease or injury, it is all they truly want. That is, the ability to choose the right to die, in lieu of, a slow and painful death. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines Euthanasia as, “The act or practice of killing hopelessly sick or injured individuals in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy,” and also, “The act of or practice of allowing a hopelessly sick or injured patient to die by taking less than complete medical measures to prolong life – mercy killing.” In those two separate definitions, you have the words that define the difference between active and passive euthanasia. “The act or practice of killing…” is what is termed as active euthanasia, in that it involves a person physically “doing” something to bring about the death of an individual. Whereas, “the act or practice of allowing…” is considered passive euthanasia, in that it allows a person to die. Normally, this entails the withholding or withdrawal of necessary medical equipment or medicine. Historically, both methods have evoked great emotional turmoil throughout society. Why? Because, it puts into dispute moral, cultural, social, and religious values that individual’s hold regarding their right to live, aswell as their right to die. Furthermore, individuals want to be able...
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