The Power of
Euthanasia
By: Christy Flaherty
What is euthanasia?
• The painless killing of a patient suffering from an
incurable and painful disease or in an irreversible coma
• Voluntary Euthanasia
• Involuntary Euthanasia
• Passive Euthanasia
• Active Euthanasia
Where is Euthanasia
legal?
Controversy of
euthanasia
Who has the power to end a life?
Karen Ann Quinlan
Case
• 21 year old who lost consciousness and stopped
breathing after attending a party
• Was in critical care, went into a coma, the machines
were the sole reason for her survival
• After many months her conditioned only worsened
• Should her family have the right to end her suffering by
taking her off the ventilator?
Karen Ann Quinlan
Tony Nicklinson
• 58 year old man who lived in Great Britain
• Was battling Locked-In Syndrome
• Challenged the court to give him the right to assisted
suicide
• Rejected his proposal
• Died of natural causes
Video of his death
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiZL8FI_WHI
Right to die
• Death is an instinctive human right
• Human rights claim that we have the right to a
dignified life, so why would we not have the right to a
dignified death?
• Should the government or patient have control over the
patient’s death?
Campaigns around
the world
Medical aid
• In other parts of the world medication is scarce
• The medicine the patient would have used, can go to
another individual and save that person’s life
• The person that wants to die, can know that they died
to save another life
Religious
Controversy
• Only God has the right to take away a life
• Euthanasia is “unethical”
• However, is leaving someone to live a torturous life
ethical?
• Atheism
Euthanasia is not
murder
• Webster’s definition of murder: To kill or slaughter
inhumanly or barbarously
• Euthanasia will result in fatality but not under those
circumstances
• End suffering, does not cause it
Right to choose
• Only the person terminally ill can experience the pain
• It does not harm the rest of society
• Best interest for the patient
• Right to chose death
Euthanasia
Bibliography
•
"The Ethics of Euthanasia | Australian Medical Student Journal." Australian Medical Student Journal
RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. <http:www.amsj.org/archives/2066>.
•
"Euthanasia." - Assisted Suicide/. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2013.
<http://www.wrtl.org/assistedsuicide/euthanasia/>.
•
Medical News Today. MediLexicon International, n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2013.
<http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/182951.php>.
•
Schneider, Keith. "Dr. Jack Kevorkian Dies at 83; A Doctor Who Helped End Lives."
New York Times, 3 June 2011. Web. 29 Oct. 2013.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/04/us/04kevorkian.html?>.
•
IBTimes UK. “Locked-in syndrome victim Tony Nicklinson dies at home.” Online video clip.
YouTube. YouTube, 22 August 2012. Web. 18 November 2013.
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bibliography
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•
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