PRO - EUTHANASIA

RIGHT TO DIE - DYING WITH DIGNITY - IT’S YOUR LIFE - IT’s YOUR CHOICE
 
Is the termination of a very sick person's life in order to relieve them of their suffering. A
person who undergoes euthanasia usually has an incurable condition. But there are other
instances where some people want their life to be ended.

Medical perspective
- NOT EVERYONE IS ELIGIBLE FOR EUTHANASIA
- The decision is completely up to the individual, nobody else has that right to decide for
them and MOST IMPORTANTLY they can change their mind until the moment is
irreversible. s
- Canada:
- Under Bill C-14, two independent health care professionals need to evaluate an
individual in order to determine whether he/she qualifies for MAID. To qualify for
MAID, a person must satisfy all of the following eligibility criteria. They must:
- Be eligible for government-funded health insurance in Canada;
- Be 18 years of age or older;
- Have a grievous and irremediable condition, as defined by Section 241.2, para. 2
of the Criminal Code;
- Have made a voluntary request for MAID that was not made as a result of
external pressure;
- Give informed consent to receive MAID after having been informed of the
means that are available to relieve their suffering, including palliative care.
- In order to have a “grievous and irremediable medical condition,” as defined by Bill
C-14, a person must satisfy all of the following requirements:
- Have a serious and incurable illness, disease, or disability;
- Be in an advanced state of irreversible decline in capability;
- Endure physical and psychological suffering that is intolerable to them; and
- Their natural death has become reasonably foreseeable.
- Patients must also be capable of providing informed consent at the time that MAID
is provided
- People don’t have the right to suffer

LEGAL AUTONOMY
- Control over their autonomy
- As health professionals our duty is to advocate for their wishes and encourage
independence
- People don’t have the right over other people’s bodies/lives, people can’t decide for others
whether or not they want to die
PALLIATIVE CARE
- "Assisting death in no way precludes giving the best palliative care possible but rather
integrates compassionate care and respect for the patient's autonomy and ultimately
makes death with dignity a real option... 
- Opposing euthanasia to palliative care...neither reflects the Dutch reality that palliative
medicine is incorporated within end-of-life care nor the place of the option of assisted
death at the request of a patient within the overall spectrum of end-of-life care."