Pros & Cons of Euthanasia

Active euthanasia differs from passive euthanasia in that it involves the active killing of a person in order to end suffering and pain. Thus far, the Supreme Court has not permitted the use of active euthanasia in America. Nevertheless, active euthanasia is rapidly becoming a controversial issue at this time. For example, Jack Kevorkian, a Michigan doctor, has built a "suicide machine" which helps patients kill themselves with an automatically injected dose of lethal drugs. Although it is illegal for Kevorkian to use his machine at this time, there are an increasing number of people who are arguing in favor of active euthanasia in certain cases. The proponents of active

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ntinues to be a controversial topic at this time. Some people have argued that killing a terminally-ill patient is not necessarily worse than simply letting the patient die. This is particularly true in cases in which the patient is suffering with severe pain. With active euthanasia, it is possible to end the misery of the patient more quickly. In the 1970's, James Rachels developed the argument that active euthanasia is really not any worse than passive euthanasia. Rachels used the example of two men, Smith and Jones, who wish for their cousins to be dead in order that they might collect inheritances. Smith actively kills his cousin by holding his head under the water in a bathtub. Jones, on the other hand, walks in on his cousin while he is already drowning in the bathtub and simply decides not to save him. Because the end result of both actions is the same, Rachels argues that the difference "between acts of killing and acts of letting die is not in itself a morally relevant differences." Margaret Pabst Battin has more or less agreed with Rachels' view and has indicated that killing a suffering patient quickly is more humane than waiting for death to slowly come. According to Battin, "if there are grounds on which i
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Approximate Word count = 1824
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)