June 18, 2014
Professor Galvin
Research Paper: Euthanasia
Euthanasia
A topic that has been pressing for the past couple of decades has been the ethical/immoral use of ‘Euthanasia’. For those who don’t know, Euthanasia is defined as the act or practice of ending the life of an individual suffering from a terminal illness or an incurable condition, as by lethal injection “ Actively” or the suspension of extraordinary medical treatment” Passively” (Manning 1998). This leads me to ask myself a question, “Is Euthanasia an ethical request to end pain, and suffering, or just a poor admit to commit suicide?” People argue that euthanasia is conflicting with a person’s right to life. A person’s right to life is a phrase that describes the belief that a human being has an essential right to live. This means that by saying that someone should be euthanized, we are violating this right to life and it is immoral. In turn, there are some instances where Euthanasia makes sense, we don’t want to see our loved in pain right?
On October 27, 1997 Oregon enacted the Death with Dignity Act which allows terminally-ill Oregonians to end their lives through the voluntary self-administration of lethal medications, expressly prescribed by a physician for that purpose. To understand the impact of the piece of legislation being passed, one must understand the consent debate over this topic. These past couple of decades we have seen many organizations formed that are for, and against euthanasia. In 1935, we saw the formation of first group that was for the legalization of euthanasia. It was called the Voluntary Euthanasia Society or EXIT, and was started by a group of doctors in London (Docker). The first society established in the US came shortly after in 1938, and it was called the Hemlock Society and it now consists of more than 67,000 members. The purpose of this organization is to support your decision to die, and to offer support when you are ready to