Circumstances that Justify the Use of Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia :: Free Euthanasia Essay

Circumstances that Justify the Use of Euthanasia "...the elderly patients...are comatose. They weigh practically nothing. Their skin hangs in heavy folds on their skeletons. 'These patients must be fed through gastric tubes pushed down their throats,' Dr. Peter Haemmerli explains, and that can make even comatose patients retch and vomit." (Culliton 1273). Thus, according to Barbara J. Culliton, many severely ill patients must endure much pain. Not a very pretty scene, is it? Is it right to keep them living in this pain? Wouldn't it be more humane to give them a painless release from their agony? For this irreversibly comatose patient euthanasia would be justified. Now consider the patient suffering from malignant cancer or some other terminal disease. How "right" is it to keep injecting drugs and performing small operations to keep the patient alive, only to lengthen his suffering? As in the case of the irreversibly comatose patient, euthanasia is not only morally justified, it is the only alternative for those truly concerned with the patient's welfare. Euthanasis is clinically defined as an "act or practice of painlessly putting to death persons suffering from incurable conditions or diseases" (Bok 1). The word "euthanasia" is generally also applied to cases in which the doctor withdraws the machines or drugs which are keeping the patient alive and thus allows the patient to die naturally. Euthanasia ends pain mercifully and easily. It is used when the pain of degradation of life or the pain of a terminal disease is greater than the pain of death (Heifetz 5). In these cases death is not the nightmare experienced in war, but rather an alternative to endless pain. "At times we must look at death as a welcome release from an untenable life. Death need not be a source of horror. It can be freedom, a release from agony" (Heifetz 5). This observation by Dr. Milton D. Heifetz encompasses the purpose of euthanasia: to provide "a welcome release from an untenable life" (5). One such "untenable life" would be that of the irreversibly comatose patient. The most widely accepted definition of an irreversible coma states that the patient displays total "unreceptivity and unresponsivity. Circumstances that Justify the Use of Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia :: Free Euthanasia Essay Circumstances that Justify the Use of Euthanasia "...the elderly patients...are comatose. They weigh practically nothing. Their skin hangs in heavy folds on their skeletons. 'These patients must be fed through gastric tubes pushed down their throats,' Dr. Peter Haemmerli explains, and that can make even comatose patients retch and vomit." (Culliton 1273). Thus, according to Barbara J. Culliton, many severely ill patients must endure much pain. Not a very pretty scene, is it? Is it right to keep them living in this pain? Wouldn't it be more humane to give them a painless release from their agony? For this irreversibly comatose patient euthanasia would be justified. Now consider the patient suffering from malignant cancer or some other terminal disease. How "right" is it to keep injecting drugs and performing small operations to keep the patient alive, only to lengthen his suffering? As in the case of the irreversibly comatose patient, euthanasia is not only morally justified, it is the only alternative for those truly concerned with the patient's welfare. Euthanasis is clinically defined as an "act or practice of painlessly putting to death persons suffering from incurable conditions or diseases" (Bok 1). The word "euthanasia" is generally also applied to cases in which the doctor withdraws the machines or drugs which are keeping the patient alive and thus allows the patient to die naturally. Euthanasia ends pain mercifully and easily. It is used when the pain of degradation of life or the pain of a terminal disease is greater than the pain of death (Heifetz 5). In these cases death is not the nightmare experienced in war, but rather an alternative to endless pain. "At times we must look at death as a welcome release from an untenable life. Death need not be a source of horror. It can be freedom, a release from agony" (Heifetz 5). This observation by Dr. Milton D. Heifetz encompasses the purpose of euthanasia: to provide "a welcome release from an untenable life" (5). One such "untenable life" would be that of the irreversibly comatose patient. The most widely accepted definition of an irreversible coma states that the patient displays total "unreceptivity and unresponsivity.