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Euthenasia Essay, Research Paper

Euthanasia

A huddled mass of a former proud and strong man lies in a bed, his body riddled with cancer. His insides a seething pit of tainted cells and his organs little more than shadows of their former selves. He cries silently in this world he is trapped in. He cries for the family he knew, the life he lived, the dignity he had and he cries for the suffering he faces. But what should he do? Lie there suffering in pain and agony, his only comfort the fact that this pain eventually will end with his death or take action and with the help of a medical practitioner and voluntarily end his life on his own terms; euthanasia.

Euthanasia is the intentional termination of life by another at the explicit request of the person who dies. (Netherlands Commission) In other words, it is when a doctor ends the life of a patient who is terminally ill and whose quality of life is extremely poor and just getting worse. The exact definition, as stated by the Suicide Act of 1961 and one commonly used in court cases is; 1- The accused intended to assist a person to commit suicide, 2- While the accused had that intention, he or she provided the assistance to the person contemplating suicide, 3- The person committing suicide was thereby in fact assisted or encouraged in attempting to take his or her own life (otherwise the alleged offender cannot be guilty of more than an attempt). But this doctor is breaking the law when performing this act of mercy. The two types of euthanasia are passive and active. Passive euthanasia is hastening the death of a person by altering some form of support and letting nature take its course (Mullens 132). Examples of passive euthanasia

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include the removing of life support, stopping medical treatment and not delivering CPR. Active euthanasia involves causing the death of a person through a direct action, in response to a request from that person (194). Often, hospitals view passive euthanasia as a viable option and DNR is a sticker one might even find on a patients file. The DNR on the file stands for do not resuscitate and is usually red to bring about attention this sticker informs any operating doctors not to use unnecessary care when dealing with this particular case (Heinmiller).

Active euthanasia is illegal but passive is not. Taking someone off life-support is an option often given to families when a patient is suffering. But if a patient was to ask a doctor to end their life or if a doctor did something to this patient at his/her request then this doctor could be arrested and put on trial for murder or manslaughter. But should that doctor be guilty of anything except compassion? Euthanasia is an end to a life but this life is one that is full of misery and only perpetuated by medical science. When we take someone off life support, is the person who turns off the machine a murderer? We do not see this person as being guilty of anything even though that person could have been kept alive. In cases of extreme suffering, euthanasia should be an option for the terminally suffering and elderly. The taking of this life is no different then the unplugging of a life support machine. Other than the fact that in cases of assisted suicide there is a choice for the suffering, a choice between drawn out pain or a death which they choose on there own terms.

In the United States there are 37,330,021 elderly, that s persons aged 65 and older. In Ohio alone there are 1,642,478 elderly. These people are getting older by the

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day and these numbers are ever increasing. Through medical science we are now able to prolong human life and sometimes this prolonging can lead to people living straight into misery. In no was are proponents of assisted suicide saying once someone gets old and are unhappy they should be able to just end there life but instead arguing that when someone is suffering beyond what a normal human being should be asked to go through they should have a choice.

People have been getting help from doctors to end their lives for years. This is a dark secret often kept from the outside world. In a recent interview a medical practitioner stated that, It is plausible that doctors in the past have helped patients to die at the patients request, if or when something like this occurs it is never spoken about or mentioned to anyone. The only two too know about it are the patient and the doctor. (Anonymous) Many retired doctors have admitted to doing this act on patients in the past. This is a problem hospitals are faced with and it is unregulated and very similar to abortions thirty/forty years ago. These procedures to perform assisted suicide are secrets not looked after by any board, higher authority, or by government policy. They are simply branded as illegal and expected never to be done. These doctors see themselves as doing a service not as murdering a patient. When does the best care switch from pumping drugs and medication into someone s body to keep them hanging on and become compassion and possibly even helping them end it all?

Dr. Jack Kevorkian is one proponent of assisted suicide and even went as far as to create a machine that can kill you with little to no pain. Dr. Jack Kevorkian was first charged with first-degree murder in December of 1990. He connected Janet Adkins, a

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member of the Hemlock Society, to his suicide machine which allowed her to inject lethal drugs into her body at any time (Humphrey 195-96). No longer is it Dr. Kevorkian but instead prisoner # 284797, now in jail, serving time for his work. This man would always interview his patients beforehand and get testimonial to their desire to go through with this operation of sorts. This man is serving time for ending misery. His tactics were often scrutinized but with regulation this kind of freelance ending of lives would

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