EUTHANASIA

-Mercy killing -Helping someone suicide

Why are we against euthanasia?

There are new treatments being discovered every day. It puts too much power in the hands of on group of people. It is immoral to help someone suicide.

Voluntary euthanasia makes the doctor the most dangerous man in the state !

Morally we should not put life and death matters in the hands of one group of professionals ." Voluntary euthanasia gives the medical practitioner power which can be too easily abused, and a level of responsibility he should not rightly be entitled to have. (Saunders 2002) Patients usually take their doctors advices when it comes to medical decisions in dealing with their health. Most patients have been taught from a young age that they should respect and trust their doctors advice. The doctors have had years and years of training gone to the best school so, media tells us that doctors know what they are doing with ad's TV serious, the news will tell you if something is wrong call 911 and get yourselves to a hospital were a doctor can help you to survive. So if their doctor recommends euthanasia as the only treatment for their suffering, it can be very hard for them to resist this recommendation. The doctor has informed them of their diagnosis, prognosis, treatments that are available and the degree of their future suffering. They need to take in account that doctors are human and subjected to human emotions consciously and unconsciously and physical limitations like being tired or just having a hard day at work. In conclusion how can we morally and amorally allow on group of professionals to make the decision when it comes to the matter of life and death.

Support: Logic and research

1. It reduce the hope for the cure and life, and it is the way to commit suicide. Using euthanasia is dispensable compare with hospice-system .

"Studies show that hospice-style palliative care 'is virtually unknown in the Netherlands [where euthanasia is legal].' There are very few hospice facilities, very little in the way of organized hospice activity, and few specialists in palliative care, although some efforts are now under way to try and jumpstart the hospice movement in that country...
The widespread availability of euthanasia in the Netherlands may be another reason for the stunted growth of the Dutch hospice movement. As one Dutch doctor is reported to have said, 'Why should I worry about palliation when I have euthanasia?'"-Wesley J. Smith, JD Senior Fellow in Human Rights and Bioethics, Discovery Institute Forced Exit 1997

 Laws can not change to allow patients to kill themselves for just some people are suffering from their disease. "Activists often claim that laws against euthanasia and assisted suicide are government mandated suffering. But this claim would be similar to saying that laws against selling contaminated food are government mandated starvation. Laws against euthanasia and assisted suicide are in place to prevent abuse and to protect people from unscrupulous doctors and others. They are not, and never have been, intended to make anyone suffer." Rita Marker, JD Executive Director Kathi Hamlon

 2. If the euthanasia become legal to use will let the medical treatment become hard to achieve, because the benefit is involved in the program.

"Savings to governments could become a consideration. Drugs for assisted suicide cost about $35 to $45, making them far less expensive than providing medical care. This could fill the void from cutbacks for treatment and care with the 'treatment' of death."--

International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide "Frequently Asked Questions," www.internationaltaskforce.org (accessed May 27, 2010)

Emotion
Inequality of lives Distrust of medical treatment

Inequality of lives
The lives of elderly people and disabled people is slighted and euthanasia may be an excuse to kill them. However, all the lives should be respected and dealt with equally. If euthanasia are legal, it may be difficult for elderly people or disabled people to assert their right to prolong life. In addition, some patients may be killed in order to get a donor of an organ transplant. Children young people

Elderly people Disabled people

..unimportant lives?

1. Disabilities and elderly people will become more difficult to access to medical care.
According to BBC News(Jan 20, 2003), a nine-year-old girl with Downs Syndrome was refused a life-saving heart transplant because of her impairment despite an announcement by Great Ormond Street Hospital that it considered children with Downs Syndrome suitable for transplants.

2. Euthanasia can be an excuse for murder

Douthat(2012) said that some people have the idea that the baby boom generation would willingly hasten their exit from moral coil in order to save someone else(their children, the government, future generations, etc.)

The surgeries, drugs and hospital stays costs a lot. This makes patients to have a sense of guilt. In addition, families do not want to pay for them to take a medical care especially when

Distrust of medical treatment

According to Fitzpatrick(2013), in Belgium, 1. nearly half (47%) of euthanasia deaths are not reported Patients may be killed without meeting the requirement enacted by law. 2. some euthanasia deaths are carried out without consent Patients may be killed even if they wanted to live longer. 3. euthanasia deaths should be carried out by doctors, but by nurses are doing them Euthanasia, killing patients, might be slighted by health professionals because anybody can do it without knowledge.

References
Dr. Kevin Fitzpatrick(2013), Euthanasia: We can live without it... CNN Opinion November 27, 2013 http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/27/opinion/opinion-anti-euthanasiakevin-fitzpatrick/ BBC(2003) Euthanasia fears for disabled(Jan 20, 2003) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2668253.stm Ross Douthat(2012), The Boomer Quietus New York Times-The opinion pages- Simon Caldwell(2011), Organs of those killed by euthanasia being used The telegraph

Euthanasia in The Netherland

report in 1990

Guidelines
The patient must be experiencing unbearable pain. The patient must be conscious. The death request must be voluntary. The patient must have been given alternatives to euthanasia and time to consider these alternatives. There must be no other reasonable solutions to the problem. The patients death cannot inflict unnecessary suffering on others. There must be more than one person involved in the euthanasia decision. Only a doctor can euthanize a patient. Great care must be taken in actually making the death decision.

Result
2,300 400

1040
8100