preview

The Issue Of Euthanasia

Decent Essays

Living in the twenty-first century we have seen many great strides in the advancement of medicine and life-sustaining technologies. These advances have resulted in improved life expectancies and quality of life for people around the globe. These medical improvements have raised questions about the appropriateness of life-sustaining treatments in the case of people who are terminally ill and experiencing severe pain and suffering. Are we robbing people of a dignified death by artificially maintaining their bodily systems? Should we really prolong life because we fear death, even though the patients themselves may be ready to die? These questions have received a great deal of attention in recent years, and many people are looking toward euthanasia for the answer.
Euthanasia is the practice of painlessly putting to death people who have incurable, painful, or distressing diseases or handicaps. It comes from the Greek words for good and death, and is commonly called mercy killing. It may occur when incurably ill people ask their physician or a relative or even a friend to put them to death. There are two procedural classifications of euthanasia. Active euthanasia refers to someone taking active steps to give a dying person their final request, a lethal dosage of drugs in order to accelerate death. This is illegal in the United States, Canada, and almost all other countries. Most religious groups consider it to be a form of suicide or murder and thus immoral.

Get Access