Running head: LEGALIZING EUTHENASIA
Legalizing EUTHENASIA 4
Legalizing Physician-Assisted Suicide
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Legalizing Physician Assisted Suicide
According to Sumner (2011), physician-assisted suicide is also referred to as euthanasia. It is an action that is intentional and painless where a person is killed to relieve them of suffering. It ranges from involuntary, indirect, voluntary, non-voluntary, passive and active assisted suicide.
Physician-assisted suicide is a very controversial issue in different jurisdictions and has not yet received both constitutional and legal support from most of the countries. In most of the countries, the lawmakers and legal consortiums have consistently worked against euthanasia. It has been argued that such a provision might expose the innocent patients to unscrupulous physicians. It might be a good thing to alleviate an individual’s rights, but at the same time, it opens numerous doors for other illegal means.
A good number of people suffer from some serious and painful illnesses such as terminal diseases. Instituting legal action for euthanasia as a recognized practice will help them end the pains and suffering they undergo in their ailment. Also, legalizing euthanasia helps the patients end their lives together with their families as they laugh together because they will know the times of their deaths (Adeniyi & International Islamic University Malaysia, 2010). Legalizing euthanasia also will help the dependents of the patients to preserve their dignity.
Similarly, it makes sense in terms economic value. A prolonged, painful life is very expensive for the hospital management to undertake including the bills, medicine, workers, and healthcare professionals. It is a bit easier to destroy the life where an individual is undergoing excruciating pains to save not only the state of the expenditures involved in the maintenance of life but also the family of the expenses involved.
Conclusion
Legalizing of the physician-assisted is something that remains polarizing. It is advantageous because it protects the patients from prolonged and excruciating pains. It also saves the family and states the expenditures involved in prolonging the life that might end up in death. However, there is the respect for human life that every individual has an unalienable right to life, and no human being should not take away their lives.
References
Adeniyi, O. B., & International Islamic University Malaysia. (2010). Legalizing euthanasia: With special reference to Nigerian, Dutch (Netherlands) and Islamic law. Gombak, Selangor: Ahmad Ibrahim Kulliyyah of Laws, International Islamic University Malaysia.
Sumner, L. W. (2011). Assisted death: a study in ethics and law: Oxford University Press.