Euthanasia
or mercy killing refers to end of life of the patient in order to relieve
his/her intractable suffering (Taqi, 2012). It has been and still to date is a
controversial topic of discussion and has been described differently in
different situations and at different places in terms of ethics as well as law.
‘Euthanasia’
or ‘mercy killing’ as an ‘act or practice of painlessly putting to death person
suffering from painful and incurable disease or incapacitating physical
disorder OR allowing them to die by withholding treatment OR withdrawing
artificial life support measures (Encylopaedia
Baritannica, 2015). On the other hand, physician-assisted suicide (PAS) refers
to “the self-administration of lethal
substance by a person prescribed by a physician” (Churchill, 1994). However,
PAS negates the Hippocratic Oath “I will
neither give a deadly drug to anyone if asked, nor will I make a suggestion to
this effect” (Manthous, 2009). To date, a little number of countries (e.g.
Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg) have legalized euthanasia (Pereira, 2011).
In Netherland, it took about 30 years of debate in order to legalize euthanasia
in the country in 2001 (Deliens & van der Wal, 2003). In United States, although
PAS is legalized in some of the states; however, euthanasia is still illegal (Steinbrrok,
2008).
References
America- the National catholic Review. (2015). Euthanasia in California. Retrieved from: http://americamagazine.org/issue/euthanasia-california.
SB-128 End of life. (2015-2016). Retrieved from: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB128.
Churchill, L.R. (1994). Physician-assisted suicide. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine,
22(87), 44-45.
Deliens, L., vander Wal, G. (2003). The euthanasia law
in Belgium and the Netherlands. Lancet, 362, 1239–40.
Encyclopaedia Britannica.
(2015). Euthanasia (law). Retrieved
from: http://www.britannica.com/topic/euthanasia.
Manthous,
C.A. (2009). Why not physician-assisted death?
Critical Care Medicine, 37(4),
1206-1209.
Pereira, J. (2011). Legalizing
euthanasia or assisted suicide: the illusion of safeguards and controls. Current Oncology, 18(2), e38–e45.
Steinbrook, R. (2008). Physician-assisted
death—from Oregon to Washington State. The New England Journal
of Medicine, 359, 2513–15.
Taqi, A. (2012). Euthanasia: is it really a bad idea? Anaesthesia Pain & Intensive Care,
16(3), 226-229.
