Issue of Euthanasia & Protecting Human Dignity
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Euthanasia has become an important issue in the protection of human dignity. It has been in the news a good deal lately because of the crusade of the so-called "suicide doctor," Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who has "assisted" at some 17 or 18 suicides over the past few years, all of people who were facing some debilitating and painful degenerative disease. As medical science becomes more adept at prolonging life, but not necessarily at making that life valuable, euthanasia becomes an option to be considered by those who suffer, those who love them, and those who are charged with their care. Euthanasia comes from two Greek words meaning "good death" or "happy death," and the term refers to any action that brings a painless death to a person suffering from an injury, disease, or the ravages of age. There is a distinction between active euthanasia and passive euthanasia. Passive euthanasia refers to the withdrawal of "heroic" measures that keep a moribund person alive. Active euthanasia means taking a positive action that leads directly to the death of another person, and active euthanasia is considered murder in most legal and religious systems (Urofsky 15).Active euthanasia should be legalized. It is first of all a humane way of ending life in the event of a terminal illness or debilitating and incurable injury. The legalization of active euthanasia would also end the physical and emotional suffering not only of the patient but also of the immediate family members. Furthermor
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e directly.
Suffering takes many forms, and the suffering of the family of the patient should not be ignored. Shertz and Blendon note that surveys show that half of those who say they would want euthanasia would accept death so as to not burden their families and not, as is widely supposed, because they had pain (Shertz and Blendon 590).
The family must face difficult decisions when there is a terminally ill patient depending on that family to make this important decision. Often, they will have discussed the matter beforehand. More often, they will not, and the family is still the decision-making unit faced with the need to balance the suffering of the patient with the possibility of relief. In addition, the family itself will be suffering in sympathy with the patient as well as by the onerousness of the decision that has to be made. In nonvoluntary active euthanasia, physicians (or family members or friends) make the decision to immediately end the lives of incompetent patients who seem to be in enormous pain or suffering, and since physicians are more and more wary of making any such decision which will leave them open to legal action, the process devolves to the family. In cases where a physician is himself a family mem
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Jersey Cantor, Final Exit, Shertz Blendon, Jack Kevorkian, Humphry Die, Shurkin Sinkler, Christian Barnard, Humphry Wickett, Ann Quinlan, Dr Kevorkian, active euthanasia, health care, health care system, final exit, heroic measures, humphry derek, family physician, prolong life, death dying, care system, hemlock society, effect partner's deterioration, partner's deterioration partner, alleviate human suffering, october 7 1991,
Approximate Word count = 2872
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)
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