Euthanasia

Paper Summary:

This paper presents several arguments, both pro and con, on the topic of euthanasia. The moral questions involved with this issue are explored, from both medical and religious perspectives. The author is in favor of the right-to-die, yet still gives an even-handed approach to the controversy.

From the Paper:

"Some opponents of euthanasia have attempted to strike a middle ground, shying away from actively allowing the constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide but making a moral distinction between actively helping patients to kill themselves and withholding treatment from a terminally ill patient, such as food and water, and there thereby permitting death, what Kevin P. Glynn has called the "ethical principle of double effect," a principle that "holds that an act intended for a morally good purpose may have an unintended but permissible bad effect." (Glynn, 1999) In other words, administering drugs to hasten dying is not permissible under the physican's ideal of doing no harm, but by doing no good, and having the same effect, less active harm will be created. This is how Catholic charities often make allowances for giving pain-relieving drugs to the dying that may hasten, if not actually cause the patient's death."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Carr, William H.A. "The right to die." The Saturday Evening Post. Sept-Oct 1995.
• Dority, Barbara. "The ultimate civil right." The Humanist. Jul.-Aug. 1997.
• Glynn. "Double effect--getting the argument right on physican-assisted suicide." Commonweal. 29 Jan 1999.
• Haverkate, Illinka, Bregje D Onwuteaka-Philipsen, Agnes van der Heide, Piet J Kostense, Gerrit van der Wal, & Paul J van der Maas. "Refused and granted requests for euthanasia and assisted suicide in the Netherlands: interview study with structured questionnaire." British Medical Journal. 7 Oct 2000.
• Sullivan, Dennis. "Euthenasia versus letting die" Ethics & Medicine. Summer 2005.

More papers on Euthanasia:

• Persuasive Essay # 140910 : "Euthanasia"
• Persuasive Essay # 26888 : "Euthanasia"
• Persuasive Essay # 37089 : "Euthanasia in America"
• Argumentative Essay # 3150 : "Justifying Euthanasia"

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