Project –Part 3 * * Tim McDougald
Legalized Euthanasia Would Not Lead to Involuntary Killing.
Independent Variables: PAS (patient assistant suicide), euthanasia, patient right to die, Netherlands, Nazis, Hitler
Dependent Variables: death, slippery slope arguments, legalization of euthanasia/PAS, and modern America.
This article addresses the issue that euthanasia would not lead to involuntary killing of patients. Slippery slope arguments against euthanasia say that PAS (patient assisted suicide) will be used in medical cases that are not well-known and will lead to doctors, who utilize euthanasia as an option, running the hospitals of America. Basically, this type of argument is designed to put fear into the lives of sick patients. However, there is really no sufficient evidence that euthanasia or PAS will bring ‘nightmares’ to patients and their families especially if the process for beginning assisted suicide is done the right way.
The Nazis and the Dutch both have had experiences with supporting euthanasia, but in their own ways. The Nazis were believed to have supported assisted suicide when Hitler, in September 1939, issued a secret mandate of involuntary killing of incurably insane, the handicap, and others who Hitler called ‘useless eaters.’ However, the Nazis bypassed the first step in the assisted suicide process that says they should verify a patient’s right to die. Their process was quite different when compared to the Dutch’s or what America is debating today.
The Essay on Euthanasia or Physician-Assisted Suicides
Proponents of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide argue that terminally ill people should have the right to end their suffering with a quick, dignified, and compassionate death. Opponents of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide argue that doctors have a moral responsibility to keep their patients alive as reflected by the Hippocratic Oath. Euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide should ...
In the Netherlands, the Dutch have had euthanasia because they believe not to ignore the suffering that dying patients endure. According to a Dutch professor, Gerrit van der Waal, the debate on this issue is still not solved, but acceptance is slowly improving this medical procedure. However, a government agency reported in the Remmelink Report that said there are problems in the Netherland about euthanasia cases not being performed as it should be done. For instance, some reports called that doctors acted to quickly to the patients last request not giving them time to recollect on their thoughts; while other reported indicate that the patients were euthanized without asking for it at all.
Legalizing Physician-Assisted Suicide is Premature
Independent Variables: fear of potential dangers, unbearable suffering, mentally competent patients with incurable illnesses, pain
Dependent Variables: patient’s impact on society, further patient studies are required, doctors connecting with patients
Researchers, Yvonne Mark, Glyn Elwyn, and Llora G. Finlay agree that more research and studies are necessary to get accurate information for euthanasia patients before different countries decide to legalize assisted suicide. Basically, these researchers are saying that if a patient experiences pain and wants euthanasia, then every effort should be made to provide better palliative care for them prior to distributing the medical procedure. Finding out why a patient may visit a doctor about receiving euthanasia is the fundamental question to ask before this medical process is legalized in any country.
The debates about assisted suicide have been primarily with medical professionals, academics, lawyers, and politicians. Instead these discussions should be communicated with the patients who actually choose to end their lives due to serious illnesses, being a financial burden, or have isolation concerns from society. Most euthanasia studies have been using quantitative approaches that relate to the physicians rather than to the sick patient. These studies are not entirely accurate since they use patients, who neither are terminally ill nor desire death for whatever reason, thus making their responses inaccurate about their true feelings concerning assisted suicide. More recently, HIV patients have been requesting assisted suicide to be performed due to their symptoms of functional loss or losingtouch with their community. An overall understanding of the patient as a whole person can truly enable doctors, lawyer, and even politicians, to see the reasoning of a patient’s request for euthanasia.
The Essay on Euthanasia-Assisted Suicide
Webster's dictionary defines the term euthanasia as a painless, happy death. In recent years, a new term - assisted euthanasia has been introduced. This is when a terminally ill patient is assisted in committing suicide by their doctor or even by a friend or relative. There is a story which I read of an Aids patient. As he approached his time of death, he decided that rather than prolonging the ...
Legalizing Assisted Suicide Prevents Harm to the Vulnerable
Independent Variables: assisted suicide slippery slope argument, comparison between human beings and nonhumans, irony of killing euthanasia patients
Dependent Variables: patient’s request vs. physician’s prescription, legalization of assisted suicide, negative and positive reactions when a patient’s life is taken
In this article, author Peter Singer introduces the irony of killing an innocent human being by voluntary euthanasia. When comparing brain-damaged human beings to a nonhuman animal, the author is saying that they both have the same mental capacity. One of Singer’s first points was that patients may end whatever has been good or bad in their lives by using patient assisted suicide methods. The patient’s freedom to choose for himself or herself is ultimately the best remedy for this medical process. The physician should try to consult with the patient, but in the end the patient should be allowed to make his/her own decision on dying. Instead of judging this issue, people should put a value on an individual’s decision to either keep their life going or to end their life when a tragic situation has developed.
Slippery slope arguments come into play when discussing legalization of euthanasia as well as PAS. Patients may be pressured into accepting some form of assisted suicide despite not wanting to die. However, Oregon seems to have a good handle on this circumstance. About 1 in every 800 deaths in Oregon is from PAS and there have been no reports brought to the Oregon Board of Medic Examiners where patients were pressured into using assisted suicide. Singer’s argument though is that if the patient’s life is taken, then more negative attention than positive reactions will be inherited.
The Essay on The Legalization of Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide
The rights of Canadians have always been reasonably limited through section one of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. There are constant discussions of the extent of one's rights being limited as situations vary, including the allowance of actions such as euthanasia and assisted suicide. However, because some individuals oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide, the issue has not been ...
Analysis
My findings upon reading and researching these three interesting articles are that each have a different point of view concerning euthanasia and patient assisted suicide. The first article concentrated on the idea that legalizing euthanasia would not lead to involuntary killing of patients. Then another article’s focus was on physician assisted suicide being premature to be legalized. Lastly, the third article talked about how euthanasia is ethical reasonable and when it is not an acceptable solution to a person’s condition. Moreover, it seemed that all the articles I read identified situations about assisted suicide that influences patients, physicians, politicians, and especially family members in the decision making process determining patients’ death scenarios. I tend to agree with the second article’s logic of euthanasia still be premature to legalize because I think more information is still required to provide thorough answers to some of the tough questions about this subject.
I have narrowed down my research considerable with this exercise for my report on legalizing euthanasia. I plan on discussing ways legalization affects a patient’s death request and how family concerns affect the decision-making process when honoring the patient’s last wishes.
Works Cited
“Legalized Euthanasia Would Not Lead to Involuntary Killing.” Opposing Viewpoints Digests: Euthanasia. Ed. James D. Torr. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. ITT Educational Services. 22 Apr. 2010 tech.edu/ovrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&type=retrieve&tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC&docId=EJ3010094237&source=gale&srcprod=OVRC&userGroupName=itted&version=1.0.
Finlay, Yvonne Mak, Glyn Elwyn, and Ilora G. “Legalizing Physician-Assisted Suicide Is Premature.” Opposing Viewpoints: Euthanasia. Ed. Carrie Snyder. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2006. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. ITT Educational Services. 22 Apr. 2010
The Essay on Active Euthanasia Should Be Legalized In The United States
The practice of euthanasia has posed a question of morality and ethicality which has been a major topic of controversy for centuries. It raises the issue of whether a terminally ill person should suffer torturing and lingering pain before death, or if they should be given the choice of peaceful and painless death. The euthanasia controversy is part of a larger issue concerning the right to die and ...
