Euthanasia

Euthos (easy)+ Thanos (dying)

What is Euthanasia?
• Euthanasia is a broad
term for mercy killing
—taking the life of a
hopelessly ill or
injured individual in
order to end his or
her suffering.
• Euthanasia can be considered a form of suicide, if
the person afflicted with the problem actively does
it. The person volunteering to commit the act to
that person can also consider it a form of murder.
Different Types of Euthanasia
Physician Assisted Death
 -refers to the action
taken by the
physician and the
patient, who both
agree(with informed
consent) to end the
patient's life.
Physician Assisted Suicide

-refers to a third party taking a patient's life

without the informed consent of the
patient.
Active Euthanasia
 providing treatment
(usually to reduce
pain) that has the
foreseeable side effect
of causing the patient
to die sooner
Passive Euthanasia

 Involves withdrawing or withholding life-

prolonging medical treatment with the intention
to hasten death in the patient's interests because
of their expected negative quality of life.
Leads to this…
Non-Voluntary Euthanasia

This is where the person is unable to ask for

euthanasia (perhaps they are unconscious or
otherwise unable to communicate), or to make a
meaningful choice between living and dying and
an appropriate person takes the decision on their
behalf, perhaps in accordance with their living
will, or previously expressed wishes.
Situations in which the person cannot make a decision or
cannot make their wishes known, includes cases where:
 The person is in a coma.
 The person is too young
(e.g. a very young baby).
 The person is senile.
 The person is mentally
retarded to a very severe
extent.
 The person is severely
brain damaged.
 The person is mentally
disturbed in such a way
that they should be
protected from
themselves.
Terri Schiavo’s Case
“RIGHT TO DIE MOVEMENT?”

 Terri Schiavo collapsed in her home

in 1990, suffering from heart failure
that led to severe brain damage
because of lack of oxygen and
already diagnosed as being in a
persistent vegetative state (PVS) for
several years and after 15 years of
sufferings she’d been disconnected
from her life-sustaining feeding
tube, which subsequently resulted
in her death by dehydration.
Nasogastric Tube PEG
 The arguments against the legalization of
voluntary active euthanasia
Autonomy
 The argument of autonomy does not
justify the legalization of voluntary
active euthanasia.

 Autonomy requires that the individual

lives according to rationally conceived
decisions, and the free conditions by
which these decisions or plans are
made are compromised by the act of
euthanasia. Individuals cannot
voluntarily and irreversibly surrender
the conditions necessary for
autonomy.

 Euthanasia requires a lethal act by

another individual to end the patient’s
life, so the argument of autonomy
does not justify the legalization of
euthanasia.
Beneficence
 The argument of beneficence is also
often used as a justification for the
legalization of euthanasia.

 It is argued that even with the best

palliative care, and the best pain
management, that there will still be a
small group of patients for whom
there is no relief from their suffering,
and so for whom the most humane
option is to end their life

 Euthanasia may be a compassionate

act in a handful of extreme cases, this
does not mean it should be legalized
under the guise of promoting the
wellbeing of patients in general.
 The ethical difference between killing and the
shortening of life as a ‘side-effect’ or ‘letting
die’

• The crux of the argument that there is a difference

between actively killing (E.g. in euthanasia) and
knowingly shortening a patient’s life as a side
effect of treating their suffering (E.g. ‘double
effect) is intention.
 The erosion of the doctor-patient relationship,
and the adverse effects on the practice of
medicine

• If euthanasia were legalized, any reported abuse of the protocol

would lead all patients to question their physicians’ motives and
care. To guarantee that there is no abuse would require anything
short of monitoring all patient visits with a physician. This
would mean the intrusion of courts, prosecutors, and the police
into medical practice, and the erosion of the privacy of the
doctor-patient relationship.
 The ‘slippery slope’

Slippery slope arguments claim that an apparently

innocuous small step can act as the thin edge of
the wedge to bring about undesirable major
changes further in that direction.
Positive side of Euthanasia
 It ends a person’s
suffering in this
world.
 Euthanasia may even
bring about happiness
in that it is what the
person desires and
wants, in order to no
longer to be a burden
to his/her family
• Depression, family
conflict, feelings of
abandonment, and
hopelessness, are
emotional burdens on
family members seeing a
person suffer.
Committing euthanasia
may be the humane act to
do for the afflicted family
member in this case.
• The euthanized
person may even be
of use to society in a
utilitarian manner, if
his/her bodily organs
are to promote the
welfare of others, one
life saves the lives of
others.
Negative side of Euthanasia
It goes against natural law ethics

THOU SHALL NOT KILL!

Euthanasia goes against the six prima
facie duties.
 Suicide is a tragic, individual act.
Euthanasia is not about a private act.
“It is God who remains
the sovereign master of
life. We are obliged to
accept life gratefully
and preserve it for his
honor and the salvation
of our souls. We are
stewards, not owners of
the life God has
entrusted to us. It is not
ours to dispose of."