Term Papers on Euthanasia

Term Paper Title	Euthanasia
# of Words	1014
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	4.06

Euthanasia

     Euthanasia - is it killing or letting die? In the last thirty years,
this has been a highly controversial topic, the worldly morals versus the
Christian. Although there are certain instances where it is justifiably
considered to be letting die, it is essentially killing.

        Euthanasia comes from a Greek word, meaning "easy death," and is now
often associated with the infamous Dr. Kevorkian. There are three types of
euthanasia - what doctors consider to be "letting the patient die," for instance
taking both conscious and unconscious patients off of life support, not reviving
the patient in case of a heart failure, et cetera. There is also assisted
suicide. Dr. Kevorkian and his suicide machine have made themselves known
through this technique. The machine injects a lethal dosage into the "patients"
blood stream, killing then painlessly within ten minutes.

        The first type mentioned above is known as "active voluntary
euthanasia." This is where a conscious, mentally competent person, usually with
a severe physical ailment, loses the will to live. Many have said that keeping
them alive is just prolonging their death, a form of cruel and unusual
punishment. They may ask that life support equipment be disconnected so that
they can die quickly, painlessly, with dignity. Most doctors are trained to try
their best to defeat death, or at least try to delay it as long as possible. But
if the patient is hopelessly ill, and would prefer to die, the doctor may
consult the hospital ethics committee, and take him or her off of life support.
When taken to court in these issues, the doctors defend themselves in saying, "I
didn't kill him, I let him die." This is illegal throughout the United States
and the rest of the world, but it still is a common occurrence.

        The second type, "passive voluntary euthanasia," is done when a
terminally ill patient's or a patient in a persistent vegetative state's (PVS)
family chooses to take their loved one off of life support. A PVS patient has no
self-awareness or any awareness of their surroundings because the cerebral
cortex, the thinking part of the brain, id dead. The brain stem, the part of the
brain that controls the major organs of the body, still works, though. A PVS
patient will never become conscious again after entering this state, will remain
like this until he or she dies. They are not brain dead, however. Technically,
in the United States, brain death occurs when the brain tissue breaks down,
disabling the lungs and other vital organs, and requiring machines to keep the
patient alive. The family may choose to have the patient taken off of life
support if they wish, and if the doctors comply, it will be done. §There was a
case, though, where the doctor said he had a "moral problem" in killing a
patient and the parents took the doctor to court. The judge ruled that removing
life support "would be homicide and an act of euthanasia" and said that
"judicial conscience and morality" told him that the doctors were dealing with
the patient correctly. But the parents later appealed to the Supreme Court and
the decision was rev...

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