Euthanaisa

Euthanasia

I became curious about this topic a couple of years back, my mother and I were watching 60 minutes and heard something about legalized killings. It caught our attention immediately, so we watched the excerpt about Dr. Kevorkian. We saw the process of euthanasia, it didn’t seem a too terrible way to die; compared to the suffering of the patients undergoing euthanasia. Then the topic came up during a random discussion while talking to a friend a few weeks back.

I changed my I-search paper topic to euthanasia, because I was interested in learning about the controversy surrounding my topic. Also, I wanted to discover laws, and punishments for inducing euthanasia on an already terminally ill patient. Then, I wondered about the families and there involvement with the process, whether they support there loved ones decisions or if they were left out of the loop in most cases. I inquired about reason as to why people would choose to do euthanasia instead of waiting it out. They are always medical miracles, we read about them almost everyday. Also with medical advancements, there are medications that get rid of most physical pain, so why resort to death.

Would this be considered suicide in a religious aspect or just a chose by a person in pain? Is being taken off a life support machine count as euthanasia? Who do you think should have the decision of whether someone dies, a doctor or family members? Another thing is, if a relative of yours was suffering from an illness that was incurable would you try and help them or would you watch he or she suffer? These are things I was curious about and researched for my topic. Some I was able to find, others were more of an opinion than a straight answer. So I passed them by during the research process.

I started my search at the Westerville public library, I asked one of the librarian assistants to help me find a few articles or books on the topic. She was pretty helpful, and surprisingly, there were multiple sources for my topic. I picked up a few books and flipped through the pages to find what exactly I was searching for. I sat down and wrote out about three pages of notes, then reviewed them. Then I asked my family about their opinions on euthanasia, they were pretty much all the same. They would never get it done, the only situation in which they would participate in euthanasia is if they were deemed brain dead.

In recent years, euthanasia has become a very heated debate. It is a Greek word that means "easy death" but the controversy surrounding it is just the opposite. Whether the issue is refusing prolonged life mechanically, assisting suicide, or active euthanasia, we eventually confront our society’s fears toward death itself. Above others, our culture breeds fear and dread of aging and dying. It is not easy for most of the western world to see death as an inevitable part of life. However, the issues that surround euthanasia are not only about death, they are about ones liberty, right to privacy and control over his or her own body. So, the question remains: Who has the right?

Under current U.S. law, there are clear distinctions between the two types of euthanasia. One group of actions taken to bring about the death of a dying patient -withdrawal of life support, referred to by some as passive euthanasia- has been specifically upheld by the courts as a legal right of a patient to request and a legal act for a doctor to perform. A second group of actions taken to bring about the death of a dying patient is physician-assisted death, referred to by some as active euthanasia which is specifically prohibited by laws in most states banning "mercy killing" and is condemned by the American Medical Association. Although it is not a crime to be present when a person takes his or her life, it is a crime to take direct action intentionally designed to help facilitate death--no matter how justifiable and compassionate the circumstances may be.

There is a difference between P.A.D. (Physician assisted death) and euthanasia. P.A.D. involves a second party, actually a doctor, who gives the patient drugs and instructs the person planning to take his or her own life. With euthanasia, it is a doctor who administers the lethal drug dose. Since it is identical to homicide, active euthanasia is illegal in every state. But how do prosecutors define the difference between ending a person's life with his or her permission, and helping a person commit suicide? If a doctor, at a patient's request, gives the person a lethal injection, he or she may be charged with murder. However, if a doctor simply places the lethal injection by the patient's side, and the patient injects himself or herself, the doctors would be charged with assisted suicide. "In the Netherlands, because primary care doctors have long-term relationships with their patients, helping them die takes a heavy emotional toll (Neumann )." Although few doctors who perform it have been brought to trial and none have been convicted and imprisoned. Most doctors hesitate to practice assisted suicide on legal grounds. Doctors are trained to preserve life; most doctors are troubled by the thought of helping patients end their lives. This issue receives considerable attention in medical publications.

With active euthanasia, it is the doctor who administers the lethal drug dose. Since it is tantamount to homicide, the few U.S. doctors who perform it have been brought to trial but none of them have ever been convicted and imprisoned. Today, all states have some form of living will legislation. In addition, the individual who wishes to have such a will may also designate a family member or friend as a proxy to make the decisions for him or her should he or she be unable to make the decisions him or herself. Some states also require the individual to sign a power of attorney to do so.

In 1994 a limited right to die measure squeaked through in Oregon. The Oregon law allowed doctors to prescribe, but not administer, a deadly dose of medication to terminally ill patients, defined as those diagnosed as having less than six months to live. By the Court kicking back the decision to the states in June, the Supreme Court then refused to hear the challenge on that physician assisted suicide law on October 14, 1997. Doctors in Oregon are now permitted to prescribe life-ending medication to anyone who is mentally competent and diagnosed with less than six months to live. The law does not specify what medication may be used. Under the approved Oregon law, patients may request doctor assisted suicide if: 1) They are mentally competent. 2) They are diagnosed as having less than six months to live. 3) They request a lethal prescription from a doctor today, and wait the required 15 days. After the waiting period, during which

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