Right to Die Viewpoints

To dramatize this new shift in public opinion, a Harris Poll in 1973 found that 53 percent of those polled opposed actively ensuring euthanasia. In 1985, 61 percent of those polled supported it. The Western tradition that has rejected this belief is breaking down (Callahan, 1988, p. 397). California, in 1987, got as far as defeating an initiative to put a euthanasia referendum on the ballot, and the Netherlands now can legally give life-terminating drugs to terminal patients at their request.

While passive euthanasia, which allows people to die without heroic, life-sustaining, death-prolonging efforts, is already legal and being practiced in most of the United States, active euthanasia, the taking of some kind of action such as turning off a respirator, is finding support in public debate as a result of the following tr

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accept "ordinary" means of treatment, but not to endure "extraordinary" treatment, which is determined to mean excessive physical, psychological, spiritual and financial burden and which, if given, will offer no real benefit for the patient. It rejects the stance which asserts that human life must be prolonged no matter what (Mitchell, 1988, p. 272). Several legal cases, however, have shown that even the Catholic hierarchy is divided on the issue of withholding or terminating artificial hydration and nutrition procedures. Those opposing it are concerned about the danger of a "slippery slope," the tern coined by right-to-life groups which refers to the need to be ever vigilant lest the dignity of human life become compromised by the wonders of modern medical technology and the ethical issues it creates (Mitchell, 1988, p. 278). As the secular movement places increased pressure on a drive for right-to-die, those directing the religious position are attempting to develop a more forceful philosophical argument to enhance their position, an argument that would apply as well to the now legal passive euthanasia. Right-to-life groups, on the other hand, oppose the popular new document, the "living will." Created and supported by
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Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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