Euthanasia: types, definitions, and ethical perspectives

Euthanasia

Law of Euthanasia in California and New York

Types of Euthanasia

Is Euthanasia Justified in any Case?

Effect of Euthanasia on Special Population

Laws of Euthanasia in California and New York

Euthanasia

The old saying life is not a bed of roses is as true today as it was centuries ago. There are uncountable joys in life which make life worth enjoying, while there are many hardships which make it tough. At times, the difficulties become so severe that people prefer death to life. One of the difficulties in life is in the form of disease. Sometimes diseases become so painful that the patients lose hope for their recovery and plan death. Sometimes, they ask the doctors to help them in getting relief from pain. This practice of ending one's life with the help of physician is known as physician-assisted suicide. It is also known as euthanasia.

This paper casts light upon various aspects of euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide. The paper explains its various types and highlights its various legal implications. The paper also contains personal opinion about euthanasia and the situations in which it can be considered as legal in personalised opinion. The paper also compares the laws of euthanasia prevailing in California and New York.

Types of Euthanasia

There are various types of euthanasia which are determined by the level of participation by the physician and the patient. If the physician deliberately makes efforts to kill the patient, to save him from pain or whatever reason, it is known as active euthanasia. If the physician does not make any deliberate effort to save patient from death, it is known as passive euthanasia.

It is interesting to mention that in euthanasia, patient is willing to die. As mentioned earlier, patients are fed up of their miserable condition and request physicians to give them relief from the pain. If the physicians find no way of treating them and lessening their pain, they opt for the last possible option to kill them. In this form, it is also known as mercy killing. The physicians kill the patients as the pain becomes intolerable for them.

The passive form of euthanasia can be best described narrating the situation when a patient has difficulty having breathing and his heartbeat is not stable. It is the duty of physician to put the patient on oxygen mask so that his breathing process continues. If he does not make arrangements for this breathing, means he does not make efforts to save his life, it implies that he tries to kill him or helps him in suicide. Though he does not deliberately try to kill the patient, he does not try to save his life hence he participates in killing him. As the effort is not direct, the euthanasia is referred as passive euthanasia.

Is Euthanasia Justified in any Case?

In my view, euthanasia must be discouraged. In order to understand the reason, one must refer to the core concept of creation of human being. The start of life does not depend on human's will. Despite all the developments in life style and technological advancements, man is still incapable to convert a dead body into a live human being. Similarly, a piece of flesh cannot be made a live baby by human beings. There are many people who are physically healthy and fit, still they die. There are many people, who are at deathbed but still alive. Their breathing process continues. It shows that there is an element of life which is beyond the physiology of human being and when it exits the body, one dies. This element is beyond the control of human beings. Hence the practices of suicide are considered undesired in the world.

It is interesting to mention that despite all efforts made by physicians, the patients die. The patients will die eventually, and it is better to let them die naturally. There is an argument that they are leading a miserable life and mercy killing can help them get rid of pain. What about the killing activities where innocent people are killed. There is no legislation that promotes war. Likewise, there should be no practise of promoting euthanasia.

There can be an argument of incurring high expenses on the care of critical patients who find no better option than death. In this case, the morale of the patients should be boosted so that they have will power to fight the disease. Death is inevitable and has to come, so it is better to let the patients die naturally.

Effect of Euthanasia on Special Population

The population mentioned at website is different from the normal patients who may long for death though they are not in critical condition. There are certain patients who have no hope to live except for a few more days. They have to eventually die in the next few days and the next few days are expected to be too miserable to live. People believe that mercy killing these patients is better than waiting for them to die. Killing is an evil but becomes inevitable when people are bound to die in a few days. Likewise, allowing a person to lead a miserable life is a bigger evil.

People also support the view that keeping people alive on machines is not a desired and natural state. One must free the patients from mechanic life so that they may die naturally (Euthanasia Procon, 2012). This argument is negated on the grounds that people may die even at machines and machines have no power to keep them alive for indefinite period of time. They will eventually die and the pain and misery they suffer from is their fate.

Laws of Euthanasia in California and New York