Physician Assisted Suicide

Paper Summary:

This paper begins with an explanation of the difference between passive and active euthanasia, claiming that, of the two, active euthanasia is morally a better option because the patient is relieved from suffering a slow death. The paper then proceeds to consider the arguments both for and against active euthanasia and concludes that, while arguments in favor of active euthanasia are compelling, the arguments opposed to euthanasia have a greater impact because of the very real concern that physician-assisted suicide would ultimately be misused no matter what types of laws were drawn up to guard against the misuse of euthanasia.

From the Paper:

"Life has been given as a gift to man from God and at times a moment comes where man is to decide whether he has the right to end life. Fundamentally there are two types of euthanasia. One is Active Euthanasia and the other is Passive Euthanasia. Passive euthanasia is seen in an example where a patient requiring dialysis, is not put on the dialysis machine and hence dies. Active euthanasia is seen where a patient is injected some poison to cause death. "In active euthanasia you directly and intentionally cause a person's death. In passive euthanasia you do not directly take their life but you permit them to die" (Moreland). In essence it can be said that in active euthanasia, something is done to cause the death while in passive euthanasia something is not done to cause the death of the patient. Although the end result of both types is the same people do make a moral distinction between the two types of euthanasia. The distinction being, the difference between killing someone and just letting someone die. However there are others who feel that this is one of the same things. Comparatively active euthanasia is morally a better option because the patient is relieved from suffering a slow death."

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