Euthanasia
Is it assisted suicide?
What are the drawbacks?
Are there any benefits?
When would it be appropriate?
Patient autonomy means that after a thorough explanation of risks and benefits the patient can make a decision about treatments or participation in medical research. Patients can make their own health care decisions throughout life so should also be permitted to control the circumstances of their deaths.
advocates of AID argue that relief of suffering through lethal ingestion is humane and compassionate – if the patient is dying and suffering is refractory.
Aid in dying is lauded by advocates for being a safe medical practice – that is, doctors can ensure death in a way that suicide by other means cannot.
The sociologist David Phillips first described suicide contagion in the 1970s. He showed that after high profile suicides, society would witness a broad spike in suicides
They suggest that this means either AID does not inhibit non-assisted suicide or that AID makes non-assisted suicide more palatable for others.
Opponents of AID are concerned that in Oregon, greater than 70 percent of patients who elect AID are elderly and have cancer, but fewer than five percent are referred to a psychiatrist or psychologist to rule out clinical depression.
Why would people want to do it?
Some opponents of AID express concern that once doctors are involved in the business of hastening patients’ deaths; they have already slid down the slippery slope [15]. Others suggest that the slope is best exemplified by an expanding list of reasons for electing AID.
Euthanasia is the act of intentionally ending a life to relieve suffering - for example a lethal injection administered by a doctor. Under English law euthanasia is illegal and is considered manslaughter or murder.
Intentionally helping another person to kill themselves is known as assisted suicide.
The campaign group Dignity in Dying wants a law allowing assisted dying. In contrast to euthanasia and assisted suicide, assisted dying would apply to terminally ill people only. The group says people with terminal illnesses should be allowed to have a choice over the manner and timing of their imminent death.
in the case of terminal illness
as a result of chronic pain
as a result of poor mental health
(doesn't necessarily make it ethical)
Many people think that each person has the right to control his or her body and life and so should be able to determine at what time, in what way and by whose hand he or she will die.
Religious opponents disagree because they believe that the right to decide when a person dies belongs to God.
the right to life includes the right to die
If an action promotes the best interests of everyone concerned and violates no one's rights then that action is morally acceptable
At the same time health resources are being used on people who cannot be cured, and who, for their own reasons, would prefer not to continue living. Allowing such people to commit euthanasia would not only let them have what they want, it would free valuable resources to treat people who want to live.