..Assisted Suicides

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..Assisted Suicides
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What is Euthanasia?

• One of the most publicly debated issues today is
  euthanasia and assisted suicides. Euthanasia is
  the deliberate killing of a person for the
  benefit of that person.
• Euthanasia is mainly taken out when one is
  terminally ill and wants to die without pain and
  end their suffering. Some of us think unbearable
  pain is the main reason people seek euthanasia,
  but some surveys prove that less than a third of
  requests for euthanasia were because of severe
  pain.
• Many countries are against euthanasia and have
  banned it, however in other countries it is
  legal. Countries have banned euthanasia because
  they see it as murder. In Britain people have
  questioned the law on euthanasia and have gone to
  court trying to legalise them.

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Reasons for Euthanasia

• Unbearable Pain
• Major argument in favour of euthanasia is that
  the person is in a great deal of pain and can no
  longer live with it.
• Medical advances has now made it possible for
  nearly all pain to be eliminated, but in rare
  cases where it can not be pain killers can
  significantly reduce the pain.
• There are also specialist doctors that can offer
  their support to deal with emotional suffering
  and depression that often accompanies physical
  pain.
• Some patient are put in a drugged state due to
  their pain. This is a no-pain state but some
  people say they need to be euthanized from such a
  state because it is not dignified how do we
  measure dignity?

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Reasons for Euthanasia

• Right to commit suicide
• Many people think that each person should have
  the right to control how they die and in what way
  and by whose hand he or she will die.
• The Suicide Act (1961) made it legal for people
  to take their own lives, hence there is a right
  to die but not a right to kill (an assisted
  suicide cannot be carried out).
• People should not be forced to stay alive
• Keeping a person alive when he or she wants to
  die would be cruel and inhumane.
• There comes a time when continued attempts to
  cure are not compassionate or wise and maybe this
  is where euthanasia comes in play.

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Arguments against Euthanasia

• Euthanasia is a rejection of the importance and
  value of human life.
• Euthanasia is usually viewed from the viewpoint
  of the person who wants to die, but it effects
  other people too, and their rights should also be
  considered.
• Allowing euthanasia undermines the commitments of
  doctors and nurses to saving lives. It would also
  discourage the search for new cures and
  treatments for the terminally ill.
• There is no certain way to regulate euthanasia.
  There maybe a way but it will not stop people who
  want to implement euthanasia for bad motives.
• Accepting euthanasia would automatically accepted
  the fact that some lives are better than others
  therefore all people are not equal.
• Religious people believe that every human being
  is the creation of God, and that this imposes
  certain limits on us. Hence our lives are not
  only our lives for us to do with as we see fit.

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Case Studies
A controversial American medical doctor. He is
famous for advocating patient's "right to die"
and assisting in the suicides of terminally ill
people. Kevorkian helped over 100 people die
through assisted suicides during the 1990s. In
1998, he allowed 60 Minutes to broadcast the
death of one of his patients. Following this,
Kevorkian was charged with second-degree murder
and convicted. He is currently in prison in
Michigan, serving a 15 to 25 year sentence. He
will become eligible for parole in 2007.
Dr Jack Kevorkian
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Kevorkian
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Case Studies

• Robert Latimer is a Canadian farmer sentenced to
  10 years in prison for the murder of his
  daughter, Tracy, which occurred on October 24,
  1993.
• Latimer says that he killed his daughter because
  she had severe mental and physical disabilities
  and ongoing health problems as a result of
  cerebral palsy and he believed that the next
  surgery she was to have, to remove a permanently
  disconnected hip, would only add to her
  suffering.
• Supporters of Latimer said that this was a mercy
  killing which should not be punished as harshly
  as other murders. (10 years is the minimum
  sentence for murder). The jury that convicted him
  felt that he should spend 1 year in jail and
  another under house arrest.
• However, disability rights advocates said that
  killing a severely disabled child like Tracy
  should carry the same penalty as killing a
  non-disabled child. To do otherwise would devalue
  the lives of disabled people and thereby increase
  the risk of more "mercy killings" by their
  caregivers.

http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Latimer
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Euthanasia Worldwide

• Accepted
• Switzerland
• USA (state of Oregon)
• Accepted under specific conditions
• Columbia
• Spain
• France

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Thank you for listening