Euthanasia Essay -- Euthanasia Essays

Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Individual cases presented to justify legalizing physician assisted suicide fail to deal with underlying medical failures to control pain, creating an illusion of control over death, and not acknowledging the thousands of patients murdered inappropriately. This is an interesting and a very controversial issue in today’s society. Euthanasia has negative sides, it can hurt society, and everyone needs to learn more bout it.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The word Euthanasia is Greek in origin. It arrived from the prefix â€Å"eu†, meaning fear, easy, and fortunate and from the word â€Å"thanatos† meaning death. The main idea of Euthanasia is that someone has a conscientious death or a fortunate one. In other words, we attempt to ease one’s pain by murdering another human being to give him/her a so-called â€Å"easy death† which is illegal and morally wrong. The key element of one human being taking the life of another human being is not present. It is exactly this element that causes euthanasia to be morally wrong (Gay-Williams,288)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are different cases that might be hard to distinguish whether it is, or isn’t Euthanasia. There are murders in â€Å"just†, war, when trying to protect oneself, and in federal executions. It can be said that one of those is amiss; it would be arduous to prove that they are always amiss. When someone looks at those examples above and euthanasia, he/she can tell their inequality. The person who is murdered above is considered by the murderer as an adversary, an assaulter, or criminally culpable. But the individual in Euthanasia is neither of the three we mentioned (Gay-Williams, 288). As I defined earlier, euthanasia is taking someone’s life, either his/her own or of another person to add to that, the human being whose life is confiscated must be a person that is assumed to be experiencing a disease or injury from which regaining life cannot reasonably be anticipated. Ultimately, the attempt must be deliberate and intentional. Thus, euthan asia is purposely confiscating the life of a believed hopeless person, whether it is the person’s own or of a relative or friend, it is still euthanasia. It is critical to be apparent about the deliberate and intentional appearance of the death. If a desperate person is injected with the incorrect drug unintenti... ...Cited Darr, Kurt. â€Å"Physician-Assisted Suicide and the Supreme Court: Implications for Health Services   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Delivery.† 22 Jun. 1997. On-line. Netscape. 1 Oct. 2002. Dekker, Diana. â€Å"Life or Death.† The Evening Post. 23 Jun. 2001. On-line. Netscape. 1 Oct.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  2002. Gay-Williams,J. â€Å"The Wrongfulness of Euthanasia† Taking Sides: Clashing views on Controversial Moral Issues. Ed. Stephen Satris. 5th ed. Guilford, CT: Dushkin/McGraw Hill, 1997. 288-289, 290-293. Hending, Herbert.†Selling Death and Dignity: Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Bioethical Issues. Ed. Stephen Carol Levine. 7th ed. Guilford, CT: Dushkin/Mcdraw-Hill, 1997 80-81, 87-94, 95. Hupfer, Sherrrie. â€Å"Ethical deisions at the Darkest Hour.† Radiologic Technology. 11 Jan. 1996.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  On-line. Netscape. 1 Oct. 2002 Komp, Diane. Assisted Suicide. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Pres. 1998 Shapiro, Joseph P. â€Å"Expanding a Right to Die.† U.S. News and World Report. 15 Apr. 1996: 63. Vallis, Mary. â€Å" Study Pinpoints Fear that pushes some to Euthanasia: A Means of Limiting a loss of Self.† National Post 3Aug. 2001. On-line. Netscape. 5 Oct. 2002