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Active Voluntary and Nonvoluntary Euthanasia

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Active Voluntary and Nonvoluntary Euthanasia
Active Voluntary and Nonvoluntary Euthanasia The term euthanasia originated from the Greek word for "good death." It is the act or practice of ending the life of a person either by lethal injection or the deferment of medical treatment (Munson, 2012, p. 578). Many view euthanasia as simply bringing relief by alleviating pain and suffering. Euthanasia has been a long-standing ethical debate for decades in the United States. Active euthanasia is only legal in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland and in the United States in the states of Washington, Oregon and Montana (Angell). Several surveys indicate that roughly two thirds of the American public now support physician-assisted suicide, and more than half the doctors in the United States do too (Angell). Active voluntary and nonvoluntary euthanasia matter because they allow the patient or family to relieve them of pain and suffering, and to die with dignity and respect. In this paper I will argue that it is immoral and unethical to deny a patient the right to die and that active voluntary and nonvoluntary euthanasia should be a legal practice in the United States. When denied the right to die one can endure a tremendous amount of physiological and emotional pain. The 1973 case of Dax Cowart is a great example of this. Dax went through fourteen months of grueling, barbaric treatments of skin debriding, tank soakings, and dressing changes. He compared the debridements to being skinned alive and the solutions poured over his skin were like having alcohol poured over raw flesh except it burns more and longer (Asher). Dax requested on several different occasions to just leave him alone and let him die but all of his physicians’ refused his requests and kept going with their treatment plan. The physicians were going against the principle of non-maleficence, which states, “ Physicians have an obligation to do no harm to the patient” (Munson, 2012, p. 892). Dax suffered


References: Angell, Marcia. "The Supreme Court and Physician-Assisted Suicide — The Ultimate Right." New England Journal of Medicine. 336 (1997): 50-53. Web. 1 Dec. 2012. Asher, Karen. (2003 May 30). UVA Newsmakers: Dax Cowart. Retrieved from: http://www.viginia.edu/uvenewsmakers/newsmakers/cowart.html Munson, R. (2012). Intervention and reflection: basic issues in bioethics. (9th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Wadsworth. Quill 1, Timothy E. “Terry Shiavo- a tragedy compounded.” New England Journal of Medicine. 352 (2005): 1630-1633. Web 1 Dec. 2012. Quill 2, Timothy. “Death and dignity- a case of individualized decision making.” New England Journal of Medicine. 324 (1991):691-694. Web 28 Nov. 2012.
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