Ethical Aspects of Euthanasia
People have always analyzed the permission to die from various perspectives. Historically, representatives of different cultures have treated this natural stage of life as a release or a punishment for wrongful actions. For instance, samurais took their own lives that were honorable doings. On the contrary, some cultures still have capital punishment for crimes. Nevertheless, today public is lively discussing the issue of dying from the ethical point of view.
The main question that raises a concern of the public is a controversy of the patient’s ability to take his own life away. This action is a voluntary active euthanasia that is very close to killing or suicide, according to one of the viewpoints. Nonetheless, the voluntary passive euthanasia is legal. It is an outcome of the difference between these two cases. The passive euthanasia presupposes removing a patient from a ventilator or other life-support devices. At the second example the person with another disease, who has an ability to live without life-support, asks for pills that can stop his or her life. At the first case, a doctor provides external help, but at the second one he or she has to technically assassinate the person. This brings about the ethical issue: people are suffering in both cases; however, at the second situation, a doctor has to take responsibility for interrupting the life of another person (Shaw, 2007, 519). Thus, the legalization of euthanasia in all its manifestations may cause a wide variety of issues by placing burdens on medics.
This issue is still controversial owing to the fact that the permission to interrupt the life of another person may provoke illegal precedents. For instance, some dishonest doctors may run the process of euthanasia without explicit consent of a patient. At the same time, some may even use their authority to gain profit. The law which is created to provide a relief to those who suffer, when misconstrued, may have a dramatic effect. Thus, the permission to take one’s life away is impossible without discussing the ethical aspects of the results this decision may have on public life.
References
Shaw, D. (2007). The body as unwarranted life support: A new perspective on euthanasia. Retrieved July 5, 2015, from
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2598200/
