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Euthanasia is a term that means assisted suicide. A more common used term to define it is a ‘mercy killing’. People who suffer incurable diseases such as motor neurone and other paralysing diseases are the ones that are seen to benefit from this phenomenon. There is a lot of controversy surrounding the issue as the negative side of the debate see it as murder and inhumane while the affirmative side believes it is inhumane to let a person suffer.
There are two types of euthanasia and they are voluntary and
involuntary euthanasia. Voluntary euthanasia is when the person gives consent
that they want to be euthanised. Involuntary
euthanasia is when the person is incapable of making the decision so a doctor
of family member is to decide. This is when euthanasia is conducted without
consent.
The act of euthanasia is broken up into two different
procedures which are active and passive. Active is when a lethal injection is
used to euthanize a person whilst passive is to withhold treatment that is
keeping them alive. Other then the great debate of whether euthanasia should be
legal or not, there’s also the argument about the moral difference between
active and passive euthanasia.
Active euthanasia is seen as cruel because somebody is
actively killing another human being. However there are arguments to support
this procedure. ‘If one simply withholds
treatment, it may take the patient longer to die, and so he may suffer more
than he would if more direct action were taken and a lethal injection given.
This fact provides strong reason for thinking that, once the initial decision
not to prolong his agony has been made active euthanasia is actually preferable
to passive euthanasia, rather than the reverse.’ (Rachels 1975). The
argument against this point is that a person isn’t given the right to cause of
death. ‘At the centre of the distinction between
killing and allowing to die is the difference between physical causality and
moral culpability. On the one hand, to bring the life of another to an end by
an injection is to directly kill the other--our action is the physical cause of
death. On the other hand, to allow someone to die from a disease we cannot cure
(and that we did not cause) is to permit the disease to act as the cause of death.’ (Callahan 1995).
There will always be strong opinions about euthanasia that
argue both sides of the case. The subject does create a sense of moral panic in
society and that’s why legalising it in most parts of the world.
References
Callahan, D. (1995). Vital Distinctions,
Mortal Questions: Debating Euthanasia and Health Care Costs. In: Moreno, J.D Arguing Euthanasia: The Controversy Over Mercy Killing,
Assisted Suicide, And The "Right To Die". New York: Simon & Schuster.
Rachels, J. (1975). Active and Passive
Euthanasia. The New England Journal of
Medicine. 292, p.78-80.
