Pollock 1 Camilla Pollock Mr.

Leeper Essay 3 13-Oct-2011 Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide In April of 1989, Tony Bland, an England football fan, was involved in a crowd pileup at a sports stadium where he suffered disastrous brain injuries which left him in a vegetative state with no expectations of recovery ("To Cease Upon The Midnight."). March of 1993, the House of Lords gave permission to have Bland's feeding tubes disconnected. He took his last breathe 20 days later. Euthanasia has been a strongly debated topic in America. Some believe people have the right to refuse treatment while others believe that euthanasia is inhumane. But is it also inhumane to make someone live when they are suffering? Euthanasia may be a hard topic to discuss in congress but it can keep people from living a painful and excruciating life. Euthanasia should be accepted in America to help people with incurable, fatal illnesses. The Netherlands was the first country in the world to legalize euthanasia. On November 28, 2000 the Dutch Parliament accepted a proposal for a law concerning legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia. This legalization was an immense help towards the acceptance of euthanasia in the medical field. The euthanasia law in the Netherlands has many guidelines to make it legal. Euthanasia is only provided to a person who is experiencing intolerable suffering with no expectations of improvement. It must be performed by a medical physician, and more than one doctor must help make the decision. The patient must request euthanasia, and the patient and physician must concur that euthanasia is the only reasonable option (Jochemsen 285). The case must be evaluated by a lawyer, ethicist/philosopher, and a physician. If performed correctly the act of euthanasia will be in no way punishable.

Pollock 2 Another way to receive euthanasia is to have a living will where the patient would request euthanasia in the incident that he or she became incapable of communicating (Jochemsen 286). It does not mean that the doctor may take the life of the patient whenever he or she pleases. It means that the patient has already given permission to have the euthanasia process approved and performed. Even with all of these rules and regulations toward euthanasia there are still many concerns. A frequent question raised is: how can a doctor accurately predict the future extent of a patients suffering? True, no one can see the future, but sometimes the present can be so painful that the future is not the biggest factor. Critics also say that the procedure is too dangerous to support. Professionals often blame the act of euthanasia on the doctor: Professor Keown defines euthanasia rather narrowly as the active, intentional termination of a patients life by a doctor who thinks that death is a benefit to that patient. Euthanasia then is not simply a doctor doing something which he foresees will shorten the patients life, but doing something intending to shorten the patients life (Keown 397). Yes, it is nearly impossible for a doctor to know if the patient is completely incurable, but euthanasia is only available to a patient who is in so much pain that he or she requests their life to be taken from them. Although the right to live is an important factor, so is the right to die.

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Works Cited Jochemsen, Henk. "Legalization Of Euthanasia In The Netherlands." Issues In Law & Medicine 16.3 (2001): 285. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. Keown, John. "Euthanasia, Ethics And Public Policy: An Argument Against Legislation." Journal Of Legal Medicine 24.3 (2003): 395. Academic Search Complete. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. "To Cease Upon The Midnight." Economist 332.7881 (1994): 21. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 13 Nov. 2011.