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TEACHER:
Pardave Brancacho, Jhino.
INTRODUCTION
Euthanasia is a controversial topic for legislatures around the world. Legal and
normalized in some countries while totally taboo in others, it remains one of the
key ethical debates at the juncture where politics meets philosophy.
Many believe that allowing a person who is terminally ill and in pain to pass away
at their own will is morally right, but those opposed to the practice on religious,
moral, and ethical grounds argue that nature must be allowed to take its course.
"The term euthanasia... originally meant only 'good death,' but in modern society
it has come to mean a death free of any anxiety and pain, often brought about
through the use of medication. Most recently, it has come to mean 'mercy killing'
-- deliberately putting an end to someone's life in order to spare the individual's
suffering."
The Pro-Life Alliance defines it as: 'Any action or omission intended to end the
life of a patient on the grounds that his or her life is not worth living.' The Voluntary
Euthanasia Society looks to the word's Greek origins - 'eu' and 'thanatos,' which
together mean 'a good death'
Jonathan Moreno, wrote in his 1995 book Arguing Euthanasia: The Controversy
Over Mercy Killing, Assisted Suicide, and the "Right to Die":
"Strictly speaking, the term 'euthanasia' refers to actions or omissions that result
in the death of a person who is already gravely ill. Techniques of active
euthanasia range from gunfire to lethal injection, while passive euthanasia can
be achieved by failing to treat a pneumonia or by withholding or withdrawing
ventilator support."
Here are some of the main arguments for and against legalizing euthanasia:
POSTURES IN FAVOR
In a 1996 US Supreme Court case regarding assisted suicide, the American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) said that the right of a mentally competent person facing
a terminal illness to choose “a timely and dignified death”, rather than suffer
excruciating pain in their final days, should be seen as “implicit in the concept of
ordered liberty”.
Allowing patients to end their suffering is not only morally justified but also
essential to upholding the right to personal and bodily autonomy, advocates
argue.
Michael Irwin, Coordinator in Society for Old Age Rational Suicide (SOARS), in
his article "Euthanasia: The Right to Die Should Be a Matter of Personal Choice"
on the newspaper Mirror said that: "The right to die should be a matter of personal
choice.
We are able to choose all kinds of things in life from who we marry to what kind
of work we do and I think when one comes to the end of one's life, whether you
have a terminal illness or whether you're elderly, you should have a choice about
what happens to you...
I’m pro-life - I want to live as long as I possibly can, but l also believe the law
should be changed to let anyone with some severe medical condition which is
causing unbearable symptoms to have an assisted suicide. I wouldn't want to be
unnecessarily kept alive against my own will."
Marcia Angell, Senior Lecturer in Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, in his
article "May Doctors Help You to Die?" on the newspaper “New York Review of
Books” said that:
"I have long favored legalizing physician-assisted dying for terminally ill patients
whose suffering cannot be relieved in any other way, and I was the first of the
original fourteen petitioners to put the Massachusetts Death with Dignity Act on
the ballot in November. In 1997, as executive editor of the New England Journal
of Medicine, when the issue was before the US Supreme Court, I wrote an
editorial favoring it, and told the story of my father, who shot himself rather than
endure a protracted death from metastatic cancer of the prostate.
"I have carefully read the thoughtful opposition materials presented by a number
of doctors, religious leaders and those who champion disability rights. I have
considered the theological and religious perspectives that any deliberate
shortening of one's life is sinful. I have also read the letters of those who support
the bill, including heartfelt pleas from Brittany Maynard's family and Archbishop
Desmond Tutu... In the end, I was left to reflect on what I would want in the face
of my own death. I do not know what I would do if I were dying in prolonged and
excruciating pain. I am certain, however, that it would be a comfort to be able to
consider the options afforded by the euthanasia. And I wouldn't deny that right to
others."
"The right of a competent, terminally ill person to avoid excruciating pain and
embrace a timely and dignified death bears the sanction of history and is implicit
in the concept of ordered liberty. The exercise of this right is as central to personal
autonomy and bodily integrity as rights safeguarded by this Court's decisions
relating to marriage, family relationships, procreation, contraception, child rearing
and the refusal or termination of life-saving medical treatment."
Timothy E. Quill, in his article "Should Physicians Help Terminal Patients Die?"
on the newspaper “Medscape” said that:
"It would be hard for me to construct addressing the suffering of a terminally ill
patient as a harm. It is an obligation. The question is, how we can respond to
those kinds of sufferings? Part of our job, in my opinion, is to help people die
better. I say that in a direct way because it irks me when we say that doctors
should not help people die. We need people who are committed to caring for
people all the way through to their death as if they were family members,
committed to relieving their suffering. Sometimes that requires helping people to
die."
The association “Compassion and Choices” wrote an article "The Facts: Medical
Aid in Dying in the United States" in that said:
Richard Doerflinger; Public Policy Fellow, Center for Ethics and Culture,
University of Notre Dame; in his article "Q&A with the Scholars: Physician-
Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia”, said that:
"It is understandable, though tragic, that some patients in extreme duress such
as those suffering from a terminal, painful, debilitating illness may come to decide
that death is preferable to life. However, permitting physicians to engage in
assisted suicide would ultimately cause more harm than good. Permitting
physicians to engage in euthanasia would ultimately cause more harm than good.
Euthanasia is fundamentally incompatible with the physician's role as healer,
would be difficult or impossible to control, and would pose serious societal risks.
Euthanasia could readily be extended to incompetent patients and other
vulnerable populations. The involvement of physicians in euthanasia heightens
the significance of its ethical prohibition. The physician who performs euthanasia
assumes unique responsibility for the act of ending the patient's life."
Peter Kavanagh, Australian politician and former member of the Victorian
Legislative Council, in his article "Opinion: Why We Should Not Legalize
Euthanasia," in the newspaper News Weekly said that:
"As a physician and medical ethicist, I believe that MAID/PAS flies in the face of
a 2,000-year imperative of Hippocratic medicine: 'Do no harm to the patient.'...
Indeed, when patients nearing the end of life express fears of losing control, or
being deprived of dignity, compassionate and supportive counseling is called for
– not assistance in committing suicide."
Helena Berger, President and CEO in the American Association of People with
Disabilities, in his article "Assisted Suicide Laws Are Creating a 'Duty-to-Die'
Medical Culture" on the newspaper The Hills, said that:
"In this profit-driven economic climate, is it realistic to expect that insurers are
going to do the right thing, or the cheap thing? If insurers deny, or even delay,
approval of costlier life-saving alternatives, then money saving but fatal measures
become the deadly default. The truth is that assisted suicide as public policy is
rife with dangerous loopholes and consequences, especially for the vulnerable in
our society. We should reject laws that legalize the practice."
The church’s position is against about the Euthanasia. And many religious
people, especially Catholics, believe that life is the ultimate gift and that taking
that away is usurping power that belongs to God only. The United States
Conference of Catholic Bishops opposes euthanasia on the grounds that life is
“a gift over which we have stewardship but not absolute dominion”.
The Catholic tradition “clearly and strongly affirms that as a responsible steward
of life one must never directly intend to cause one’s own death, or the death of
an innocent victim, by action or omission”, the assembly concludes.
ABORTO
INTRODUCTION
En pocas palabras, el aborto implica interrumpir el embarazo, impidiendo que el
feto se desarrolle y nazca un niño.
CLASIFICACIÓN
Aborto Provocado
Aborto Completo
Aborto Incompleto
Aborto Inevitable
Consiste en la dilatación del cérvix, ruptura de las membranas, y la presencia de
contracciones uterinas en veces intensas, esperándose que se produzca el
aborto en poco tiempo.
Aborto Diferido
Se define como la retención del embarazo no viable por varias semanas donde
puede producir hemorragia vaginal, en este tipo no se desarrolla de un tamaño
normal el útero con relación a la edad gestacional sin modificaciones cervicales.
POSTURES IN FAVOR
Uno de los principales argumentos tiene que ver con que cada mujer pueda
salud pública. Según explicó Mariana Romero, médica investigadora del Cedes
muertes maternas por aborto por año. A partir de 2013, con la aplicación de la
ley, pasaron a tener una o ninguna muerte materna por abortos clandestinos y
ninguna por las que acceden a la interrupción voluntaria que ofrece el Estado”,
agregó Romero.
No sirve penalizarlo
sólo hace que los abortos sean clandestinos, se practiquen en forma insegura y
“En el caso concreto del aborto, y de acuerdo con los datos actuales de la
ciencia, la realidad es que desde la concepción existe una vida humana y que el
embrión –hasta la octava semana– y el feto –a partir de la novena semana–
es un ser humano singular, distinto e independiente de la madre, que necesita
del claustro materno para su desarrollo. Señalar, como se propende a proclamar,
que el aborto es un ejercicio de libertad porque la mujer es dueña de su propio
cuerpo, es una falsedad, porque el aborto afecta a una vida distinta a la de la
mujer embazada, que es además la de su propio hijo.“ (Nicolás Jouve de la
Barreda. Doctor en Ciencias Biológicas por la Universidad Complutense de
Madrid y Catedrático de Genética en la Universidad de Alcalá. Ha sido presidente
de la Sociedad Española de Genética y colaborador de la Cátedra de Bioética
UNESCO. Fuente: CiViCa)
“Así que incluso en un embrión de una semana, con esas nuevas técnicas,
podemos decir ya, “él es un hombre” o “ella es una mujer”, y por tanto sabemos
que el embrión ya es, de hecho, una persona humana. Y, si no estoy confundido
con el Inglés; cuando se refiere al embrión yo no diría “eso”, porque sabemos
que ahí hay un ser humano. Como un marinero sobre su barco, yo preferiría
decir: ella está ahí. Recuerden que el pequeño embrión humano posee ya las
propiedades que nos permiten reconocer que ella es una mujer, por
ejemplo. Rebasa a mi imaginación como genetista que los legisladores,
sabiendo que este embrión de una semana es una niña, ¡no se dieran cuenta, al
mismo tiempo que es una persona humana!” (Jérôme Lejeune. Médico genetista
francés, descubridor de la anomalía cromosómica que provoca el síndrome de
Down, y considerado el padre de la genética moderna. Fue Profesor de Genética
Fundamental en la Facultad de Medicina de la Universidad de París, miembro de
la Academia Pontificia de las Ciencias, miembro de la Academia de Ciencias
Morales y Políticas de Francia, miembro de la Academia Nacional de Medicina
de Francia, miembro de la Real Sociedad de Medicina de Londres y Doctor
Honoris Causa por numerosas universidades. Fuente: Testimony before the
Louisiana Legislature, publicado por la Fondation Lejeune).
“Los protagonistas originales de reformas para las leyes de abortos, han rebatido
que una gran proporción de los casos de abortos clandestinos hasta ahora
tratados en hospitales, y casi todas las muertes resultantes, fueron debidas a
interferencia criminal. Ellos postularon que la legislación del aborto eliminaría
esto y esgrimieron argumentos y evidencias en contra. Nuestras cifras nos
indican… que a pesar de un marcado aumento en el número de abortos
terapéuticos (legales) desde 1968 a 1969, desafortunadamente, no hubo un
cambio significativo en el número de casos de abortos clandestinos que
requerían ingreso en un hospital. El hecho de que la legalización del aborto no
haya, hasta el momento, reducido materialmente el número de abortos, ni de
muertes producidas por abortos de todas clases, no es sorprendente. Esto
confirma la experiencia de la mayoría de las naciones y fue pronosticado por el
Colegio en su declaración de 1966.” (Informe del Real Colegio de Obstetricia y
Ginecología del Reino Unido, publicado por el British Medical Journal en mayo
de 1970. Fuente: Hay Alternativas).
https://euthanasia.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000142
https://euthanasia.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000126
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/euthanasia-right-die-should-matter-2182127
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2012/10/11/may-doctors-help-you-die/
https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/aclu-amicus-brief-vacco-v-quill
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/867914
https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/ethics/code-medical-ethics-overview
https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/365326-how-assisted-suicide-laws-are-creating-a-duty-
to-die-medical-culture
http://www.outono.net/elentir/2016/07/19/argumentos-cientificos-en-contra-del-aborto/