Euthanasia for Extremely Ill People

Euthanasia and assisted suicide are two of the most important public policy issues debated today. These issues have raised the question: when does the motivation to help people suffering from pain go too far? With this in consideration, the outcome of this debate will greatly affect family relationships, interactions between doctors and patients, and basic concepts of morality. There are numerous groups that support euthanasia and also many that are against it. Some argue that a person should have the "right to die" are they so please, while others oppose this argument by saying that there are other options out there. Options that can alleviate the pain that is causing the will to die. When asking yourself if you agree with the legalization of euthanasia or not think about what a person's life is worth, not only to them, but also to their family and friends. Requests for euthanasia stem from pain and depression, and both of these problems can be treated; therefore arguments for legalizing euthanasia are unconvincing.

The definition of euthanasia is far too often confused with another term called "assisted suicide". Many people fail to differentiate the two since their meanings are extremely similar, however they are not identical. With euthanasia, one person does something that directly kills another person. For example, if a doctor gave a patient a lethal injection that would be considered euthanasia. With assisted suicide, a non-suicidal person only provides the means or acts in some way to help a suicidal person kill him or herself. They do not directly kill the person with such requests to die. For example, a doctor who wrote a prescription for poison and gives it to a patient would be assisting a suicide. These two terms are extremely close in definition, but are not the same thing, nor are they contained within same debate.

Within the term euthanasia there are three types of practices. One is called voluntary euthanasia. Voluntary euthanasia would be a case where a person asks to be killed by another. This would involve putting a person to death for merciful reasons, in a painless way and with the person's consent. The second type of euthanasia practice is called involuntary euthanasia. This would concern the killing of a person who is not capable of expressing their wishes, because of immaturity (such as a newborn infant), mental retardation, or coma. In this case it would be decided by others if the person would want their life to end in that particular situation. The third practice of euthanasia is called passive euthanasia. Passive euthanasia is when a patient is killed by withdrawing some kind of life support and letting nature take its course. If you were to remove life support, stop medical procedures, or even not deliver CPR to a person in need then this would be included under the practice of passive euthanasia. (Young, 1) Since there are a number of practices included in the term euthanasia, it would be a difficult thing to ...