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Euthanasia: Murder or Mercy?: By: Tanya Garg

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83 views16 pages

Euthanasia: Murder or Mercy?: By: Tanya Garg

Presentation about Euthanasia (mercy killing) and the ethics involved.

Uploaded by

tanyagarg
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Euthanasia: Murder or Mercy?

By:
Tanya Garg

Key Terms

Euthanasia- the act of putting to death painlessly or allowing


to die, as by withholding extreme medical measures, a
person suffering from an incurable disease or condition.
Hippocratic Oath- an oath that embodies a code of medical
ethics and is usually taken by those about to begin medical
practice
Mercy killing- euthanasia, esp. for those suffering from
intolerable pain.
Terminal illness- A disease or condition that will lead to
certain or near-certain death; an incurable and fatal
condition.
Vegetative state- Of or being a state of grossly impaired
consciousness, as after severe head trauma or brain disease,
in which an individual is incapable of voluntary or purposeful
acts and only responds reflexively to painful stimuli.

What is Euthanasia?
Euthanasia is the act or practice of ending the

life of a person suffering from a terminal


illness or an incurable condition.
Euthanasia is a moral issue because it deals
with whether it is morally right to commit
suicide or assist in ending someone's life.
Basically, who are we to play God?
The word euthanasia comes from Greek,
and means dying in a good way. It is also
called mercy killing.

Types of Euthanasia
Voluntary & Involuntary Euthanasia

Voluntary Euthanasia means that the act of putting the


person to death is the result of the persons own free will.
Involuntary Euthanasia means that the person is put to
death without explicitly requesting it.
Active & Passive Euthanasia
Active euthanasia would be actively helping a person
die by the use of medical drugs, etc.
Passive euthanasia would be a physician withholding or
withdrawing life-sustaining medical treatment at the
patients request, and letting the patient die passively of
natural causes.

Medical Perspective
Much like most of the world, the medical

world has not reached a consensus on


the issue of Euthanasia
Euthanasia goes against the Hippocratic
oath, yet some doctors do perform the
act

The Hippocratic Oath


I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody

who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion


to this effect.
-Hippocrates, the father of medicine

Church View
The catechism of the Catholic Church states Whatever its motives

and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives


of handicapped, sick, or dying persons. It is morally unacceptable.
Catholic religion views each and every life as significant in its own

particular way.
Sin of conforming to Gods roles and powers
Specific life plan for each person on this world.
Being in this world is about love and hope. Dying unnaturally is not

the real solution. Loving others, finding a reason to live, and hope
are the true answers.

Pros
The sacredness of human life is degraded when quality of life is

reduced for the sake of extending quantity of life.


When a patient loses his/her meaning in life (dreams, aspirations,
etc.), he/she remains a human, but his/her overall personhood is
compromised. In such cases, it is morally acceptable to end a
patients life.
The Hippocratic Oath does not explicitly state that a physician
must preserve the patients life at all costs.
Possibility to save vital organs to save other patients.
Between suffering and death, death is the lesser of two evils.

Cons
Miracle cures and recoveries have been known to occur in rare

cases.
Many religions do not allow suicide or intentional killing of
others.
Insurance companies would pressure doctors to euthanize
patients to keep costs low.
Doctors are fallible humans too, and an incorrect diagnosis
could lead to the end of a life that could have been saved.

Is killing always a bad thing?


Some people think that causing someones death is always a bad

thing. But others disagree.


If you think that in some situations causing someones death can be a
good thing, your moral evaluation of killing and letting die in those
situations will be very different from normal situations (where death
is bad).
If we assume that Jones let his cousin die but that he was unable to
kill him we will consider Jones a less bad person than Smith. (If you
have a choice, you would rather have people like Jones around you
than people like Smith.)
But imagine that you want to die. Now you would probably rather
have people around you who are strong enough to help you to die
than those who would be ready to let you die but who just couldnt
pull themselves together and do active euthanasia.

Euthanasia Legislation
Euthanasia is regulated at the state level.
In most states, euthanasia is illegal.
Many states allow the refusal of treatment

leading to death.
States such as Oregon have legalized
voluntary euthanasia.

AMA on euthanasia
The intentional termination of the life of one

human being by another - mercy killing - is


contrary to that for which the medical
profession stands and is contrary to the policy
of the American Medical Association.

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. The
advice and judgment of the physician should be
freely available to the patient and/or his
immediate family.
-American Medical Association, 1973

BMA on euthanasia
The BMA has clear policy opposing

euthanasia. It accepts that, legally and


ethically, patients can refuse life-prolonging
treatment and that interventions designed to
keep patients comfortable and pain-free may
reduce their lifespan.

Nevertheless, it has opposed proposals for

changing the law to allow interventions, such as


a lethal injection, whose sole purpose is to end
life.
British Medical Association, 1998

Sources
Hinman, Lawrence. "Ethics Updates." Euthanasia and End-of-Life

Decisions.
17 Aug 2006. University of San Diego. 22 Oct 2006
<http://ethics.sandiego.edu/Applied/Euthanasia/index.asp>.
http://catholicism.about.com/od/euthanasia/a/viewoneuthan05.htm
The American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary. Houghton Mifflin
Company. 25 Oct. 2006. <Dictionary.com
http://dictionary.reference.com/
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