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The Controversy of Euthanasia

By Cristina Olvera, published Nov 17, 2005
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God created the world in six days. The first five days he created the sky, land and vegetation, the sun, moon and stars, the sea, animals that move along the ground. On the sixth day he created man in his won image. He saw that all this was good and on the seventh day he rested. God gave us life and he worked hard to give us all the things we need to live. He even gave his only son so that if we believe we will have eternal life. This is why the controversy of Euthanasia is skyrocketing in the United States. It has created mass confusion among Americans due to the strong arguments those for and against it propose, which leaves those undecided in turmoil.

WHAT IS EUTHANASIA?

Euthanasia is the practice of mercifully ending a person's life to release the person from an incurable disease, intolerable suffering, or undignified death. The word Euthanasia originated from the Greek language, with the prefix eu meaning "good" and the suffix thanatos meaning "death". It originally referred to intentional mercy killing. When medical advances made prolonging the lives of dying or comatose patients possible, the term Euthanasia was also applied to a lack of action to prevent death. There are a number of vaguely related terms such as Passive Euthanasia, Active Euthanasia, Physician Assisted Suicide and Involuntary Euthanasia.

Dr. Jack Kevorkian was found guilty of 2nd degree murder in 1999 for the mercy killing of a patient with ALS in 1998.

PASSIVE EUTHANASIA

Passive Euthanasia is causing the death of a person by altering some form of support and letting nature take it's course. For example:
- Removing life support equipment
- Stopping medical procedures and medications, etc.
- Stopping food and water and allowing the person to dehydrate or starve to death
- Not delivering CPR (cardio-pulmonary resuscitation) and allowing a person, whose heart has stopped, to die

Takeaways
  • Euthanasia remains illegal in all states except Oregon.
  • 75% of Americans favor Euthanasia.
  • 35 states explicitly criminilize Euthanasia
Did You Know?
Dr. Jack Kevorkian was found guilty of 2nd degree murder in 1999 for the mercy killing of a patient with ALS in 1998.
Comments
Showing Comments 1 - 13 of 13
 
 
euthanasia is cruel. its killing someone. its not acceptable. not ethical.

Posted on 05/07/2008 at 6:05:07 PM

 
euthanasia is good.. imagine your life when you're not financially stable. i mean when your monthly income comes just enough to support your basic needs and expenses. then, a family member acquired some kind of sickness or disease and can't seem to get a way out of it.. no recently discovered cure, or nothing at all.Euthanasia will prevent the family not to have an unending assessments for medical bills and etc..

Posted on 02/29/2008 at 11:02:15 PM

 
euthanasia is good, imagine you are suffering of a horrible desease and you want pain to stop, but there's no cure for your sickness, and you are mentaly ready to stop the suffer by stop living. It's a nice way to stop suffer in you are in terminal cases.

Posted on 02/21/2008 at 6:02:36 PM

 
anyone can play God, put a gun in their hands and hatred in their heart. And now they pick who lives and dies.

Posted on 01/10/2008 at 7:01:09 AM

 
a painless death doesnt make killing acceptable

Posted on 12/16/2007 at 2:12:49 PM

 
"when there is life, there is hope" well, we need to be centralize this simple but great issue in life...because we're playing between life and death!!!

Posted on 11/28/2007 at 4:11:00 AM

 
we'll doctors who conducts euthanasia in his/her patient can be called an executer. why?! simply because they have their hippocratic oath and they will break their oath... they dont need to have mercy killings because they are trained to prolong the life of their patient not to kill them... am i right people???!!

Posted on 11/28/2007 at 4:11:00 AM

 
Dude your playing god by keeping the guy on life support beside there in pain, its cruel NOT to kill them

Posted on 10/16/2007 at 7:10:00 PM

 
not really i love you all

Posted on 09/17/2007 at 8:09:00 AM

 
i think this is pants

Posted on 09/17/2007 at 8:09:00 AM

 
These comments point out what I believe to be the real issue behind the anti-euthanasia side: opposition on moral and religious grounds. This article gives the slippery slope argument which is valid and certainly a point that is raised. The salient issue for the opposition, though, comes from a theistic perspective, claiming that taking another life is a sin according to their religious beliefs.

Posted on 12/05/2006 at 10:12:00 PM

 
I think euthanasia is something that people need to decide on depending on their situation. I mean people say god decide when and how we die or that 'he kills us' and if he made the commandment 'thou shalt not kill' technically he is breaking his own law/commadment/rule. My personally response to euthanasia is that it all depends on the situation. I disagree with people letting others to die because they are dpressed but if someone has a condition like brain dead then fair enough euthanize them. After all they'd be dead without lfie support already.

Posted on 08/13/2006 at 8:08:00 PM

 
I think that mercy killing is wrong. Who are you to play God and take other lives into your own hands. Even if it is going to benefit the person, I think that its a cruel act

Posted on 05/09/2006 at 12:05:00 PM

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