Euthanaisa: To Kill or Not To Kill

Euthanaisa: To Kill or Not to Kill

What is euthanasia? Euthanasia is the act or practice of killing somebody who has an incurable illness or injury, or allowing or assisting that person to die. The word euthanasia comes from the Greek language: eu which means "good" and thanatos which means "death". One meaning given to the word is the intentional termination of life by another at the explicit request of the person who dies. Another meaning is that the act must be initiated by the person who wishes to commit suicide. Some people define euthanasia to include both voluntary and involuntary termination of life. Like other moral, ethical, and religious terms, "euthanasia" has many meanings. Euthanasia is illegal in most countries. There are several types of euthanasia and they are as followed: active euthanasia, passives euthanasia, voluntary euthanasia, involuntary euthanasia and physician assisted death. For example; here is a true account of a euthanasia act that had happen according to the anonymous author of The Journal of the American Medical Association.

The call came in the middle of the night. As a gynecology resident rotating through a large, private hospital, he had come to detest telephone calls, because invariably he would be up for several hours and would not feel good the next day. However, duty called, so he answered the phone. A nurse informed him that a patient was having difficulty getting rest; he asked "could I please see her". She was on 3 North. That was the gynecologic-oncology unit in his building, which was not his usual duty station. As he trudged along, bumping sleepily against walls and corners and not believing he was up again, he tried to imagine what he might find at the end of the walk. Maybe an elderly woman with an anxiety reaction was hurt or perhaps something particularly horrible. He grabbed the chart from the nurses' station on the way to the patient's room, and the nurse gave him some hurried details: a twenty-year-old girl named Debbie was dying of ovarian cancer. She was having unrelenting vomiting apparently as the result of an alcohol drip administered for sedation. As he approached the room he could hear loud, labored breathing. He entered the room and saw an emaciated, dark-haired woman who appeared much older than twenty. She was receiving nasal oxygen, had an IV, and was sitting in bed suffering from what was obviously severe air hunger. The chart noted her weight at eighty pounds. A second woman was in the room that also had dark-hair, but of middle age; stood at her right, while holding her hand. Both looked up as he entered. The room seemed filled with the patient's desperate effort to survive. Her eyes were hollow, and she had suprasternal and intercostal retractions with her rapid inspirations. She had not eaten or slept in two days. She had not responded to chemotherapy and was being given supportive care only. It was a gallows scene, a cruel mockery of her youth and unfulfilled potential. Her only words were, "Let's get this over with." So then he retreated with his thoughts to the nurses' station. The patient was tired and needed rest. He could not give her health, but he could give her rest. He asked the nurse to draw 20 mg. of morphine sulfate into a syringe. He took the syringe into the room and told the two women he was going to give Debbie something that would let her rest and to say good-bye. Debbie looked at the syringe, and then laid her head on the pillow with her eyes open, watching what was left of the world. He then injected the morphine intravenously and watched to see if his calculations would be correct. Within seconds her breathing slowed to a normal rate, her eyes closed, and her features softened as she seemed restful at last. The older woman stroked the hair of the now-sleeping patient. He waited for the inevitable next effect of depressing the respiratory drive. With clocklike certainty, within four minutes the breathing rate slowed even more, then became irregular, then ceased and then she was dead. This example would be an active voluntary act of euthanasia. (ethics.acusd.edu)

Active and passive euthanasia are two totally different types of euthanasia. Active euthanasia is when the doctor takes specific steps to cause the patient's death, such as injecting the patient with poison. This is usually an overdose of pain-killers or sleeping pills. Which some people consider the barbaric way of doing it. Passive euthanasia, which is more common; is when the doctor takes the patient off of any type of life support and lets them die. The most common example of this is the "do not resuscitate order". In which the doctor decides that it's a lost cause to try to save the person (Pregnant pause).

Voluntary euthanasia is when the patient requests that action be taken to end his life, or that life support be stopped, with full knowledge that this will lead to his death. Involuntary euthanasia is when the patient's life is ended without the patient's knowledge or consent. According to David N. O'Steen, Ph.D., and Burke J. Balch, J.D this could mean that the patient is kicking and screaming and begging for life, but in practice today it usually means that the patient is unconscious, unable to communicate, or is too sick and weak to be aware of what is happening or to take any action on his own behalf (Pregnant pause).

Then there is physician assisted death. In which a doctor provides a patient with the means to end his own life, but the doctor does not administer it. For example, if a doctor gives you an injection of morphine sufficient to cause your death, this is euthanasia. But if the doctor puts the hypodermic needle beside your bed, explains to you what it is, and leaves, and you later inject yourself, this is considered assisted suicide (Pregnant pause).

The way they perform euthanasia has a large impact on how people view euthanasia. Euthanasia can be performed by lethal injection, gas, the removal of life support equipment, the withholding of food and fluids, and the removal of necessary medicines. It is legal to turn off a patient's life support when the higher centers of the brain stop working. Patients are allowed to choose passive euthanasia