The Ethics Of Euthanasia. (Arguments

Against Euthanasia) Essay, Research Paper

Euthanasia nowadays, constitutes a moral issue that from time to time comes into view mainly from its supporters who, contrarily to more traditional opinions, believe that the man is the master of his life and that nobody else can force him to stay alive, especially when his life has become unbearable from the illness and the pain. This dilemma does not have an easy solution. Even if basic thesis can and should- exist, many times the subsumption of the specific cases to these thesis, indicates the weakness of the man in front of some crossroads that happens to meet in his life. My opinion is that the ending of the life should not be looked at as just a demonstration of a humanistic attitude that lacks spiritual consideration for the man, but as a natural situation that should be respected and not abused.

The word euthanasia comes from the Greek words eu ( well ) and thanatos ( death ). It means a painless and gentle death. But in modern usage, it has come to imply that someone s life is ended for compassionate reasons by some passive or active steps taken by another person. Furthermore, today euthanasia is referred to, as passive or active that are differentiated on the basis of the behavior and the intent of the person who helps another person die.

Passive euthanasia refers to someone s helping another person to die by withholding or withdrawing life- sustaining treatment, including the administration of food and water. It is also known as euthanasia by omission. Passive euthanasia is usually requested by the person dying, either verbally or through a written document such as a living will. In passive euthanasia, by withholding intravenous feedings, medications, surgery, a pacemaker, or a respirator, the doctor can let the patient die of the underlying disease.

Active euthanasia, on the other hand, refers to someone s taking active steps to give a dying person, on his or her request, a lethal dosage of drugs in order to hasten death.

We can see through history that the Greeks and the Romans believed in the importance of a death with dignity that they achieved by using poisons. In the second and third centuries AD, the Christian spirit opposed the active or passive ending of life for anyone in order to gain relief. Nevertheless during the Renaissance, people stopped to criticize suicide. The modern euthanasia movement began in England in 1935, when G. B. Shaw and H. G. Wells started a Voluntary Euthanasia Society that later became known by the name Exit . In the United States, the movement was begun by Charles Potter, under the name Society for the Right to Die . Finally, in the early 1970s, other voluntary euthanasia societies were formed in the Netherlands and in Australia as the two edged blade of modern medical technology became obvious .

In this research paper we will analyze the ethics of Euthanasia that can be separated on three major bases: the philosophical, the moral, and the legal base. The debate over these bases for euthanasia has spilled considerable ink since the early 1970s and will probably continue to do so into the twenty-first century. But how these issues should be faced.

Beginning with the philosophical aspects of euthanasia we must first understand the importance of the sanctity of life. As R. Dworkin (p. 82), claims that human life is sacred because on the one hand religious traditions believe that God made humankind in His own image , and that each individual human being is a representation of the Creator. On the other hand the idea that human beings are something special among the whole creation explains why it is horrible that even a single human individual life should be extinguished.

These interconnections are most evident in the lives of people who are religious in traditional ways. However, most people who are not religious or atheists also have general, instinctive convictions about whether, why, and how any human life has intrinsic value. Therefore, supporting the religious viewpoint we would represent a large portion of the demurrers of euthanasia.

The mystery of life continues to tease us even after its end. The intercession of the man into this unknown process that leads the creatures towards their postmortem beginning of another life, the substitution of the Life-giver s authority by the man, it isn t just an act of disrespect, but an impermissible and arbitrary interference of the fiddling creature in God s will. As an ethicist (+arakas, p. 92- 94) in the U.S. writes,

God is the giver of life, and in His hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind (Job 12:10). To wrongfully take the life of an innocent person is murder and is condemned as a sin (Exodus 20:13). ( ) The only good death for the Christian is the peaceful acceptance of the end of his or her life with faith and trust in God and the promise of Resurrection .

Nevertheless, we shouldn t forget that in vital and crucial moments in our lives, we don t easily loose our hope for a miracle, which in some cases happens.

Looking through the moral aspects of euthanasia, we can divide them in two points of view: of the euthanized (patient) and his environment, and of the responsible doctor.

Starting with the moral analysis of the patient who desires to go through euthanasia, we could say that his or her wish has s