Moral Aspects of Euthanasia
This is an excerpt from the paper...
The issue of euthanasia is neither new nor simple. Indeed, one difficulty with discussing euthanasia from a moral standpoint alone is that moral debate overlaps into law, medicine, and public policy. Another difficulty is one of definition. Euthanasia, derived from the Greek combining forms eu meaning good and thanatos meaning death, has historically been identified with the mercy killing of hopelessly sick human beings and animals. However, in the current period, under the general category of euthanasia fall a number of discrete end-of-life terms, which are used in a variety of ways. Moral differences in definition may seem subtle, but precisely for that reason, they are not insignificant. They are an aspect of a debate that is not resolved legally and medically, chiefly because it is not resolved morally.In a 1994 report by the American Medical Association's (AMA) Council on Ethical and Judicial affairs, euthanasia is the name given to a physician's administering to a patient some means of death, such as "death-causing drug or other agent" (Glasson 91). AMA's definition of assisted suicide, associated with such figures as Kevorkian and as a practical matter having more to do with law and medicine than morality, is the situation in which a physician gives a patient either means or knowledge to commit suicide but does not perform the act. Palliative treatment is the name given to the act of providing increasing drug dosages for pain relief that may have the so-called double
. . .
B1).
How arguments on one side and the other emerge may be seen in the position on the subject of the Roman Catholic Church. In some ways it can be seen as progressive vis-a-vis the question of rights, while in other ways it can be seen as oppressive and indeed perfectly in line with the rigidity associated with the Catholic position on abortion. In 1957, in the encyclical The Prolongation of Life, Pope Pius XII essentially brought the Roman Catholic Church to a position of accepting passive euthanasia, a position reaffirmed by John Paul II in 1980 (Humphry & Wickett 124; Ad Hoc Committee 169). In part, the position stems from the mixed blessings of high-technology medicine and overutilization of intensive-care medicine. Compared to a stubborn position that life must be maintained at all costs (familiar to abortion extremists), this seems a realistic assessment of passive euthanasia, not overburdening health system or family in anguish. However, a moral line appears to have been drawn by the Church, when passive euthanasia, essentially to be understood as originating with the vicissitudes of the medical system, physician power, or the power of patient families, was transmuted into PAS or active voluntary euthanasia, essentially to
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Social Workers, Humphry Wickett, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Martin Roy, Ethical Judicial, Supreme Court, Siegler Gomez, , Jack Kevorkian, Kubler-Ross Byock, assisted suicide, passive euthanasia, terminally ill, humphry wickett, active euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, voluntary active euthanasia, angeles times, voluntary active, american medical, active voluntary, active voluntary euthanasia, los angeles times, garden city ny, american medical association,
Approximate Word count = 3288
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)
More Essays on Moral Aspects of Euthanasia
|
Customer Service
to Over
32,000 Professionally Written Papers!!!
