EUTHANASIA: AIMING TO KILL WITH A COUNTER FULL OF OPTIONS?

2021 ◽  
pp. 13-14
Author(s):  
Tusharindra Lal ◽  
Riya Kataria ◽  
Priyadarshee Pradhan
Keyword(s):  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Medical Practitioner ◽  
Passive Euthanasia ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Patient’S Autonomy ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The World ◽  
Meaningful Existence ◽  
The Right ◽  
Active And Passive Euthanasia

Euthanasia or assisted suicide has been a matter of contention for many years with various types of euthanasia including voluntary, non-voluntary, involuntary, active and passive euthanasia being argued for around the world. This article highlights the types of euthanasia while analyzing the ethical, legal, economical and spiritual dilemmas surrounding them. It also compares euthanasia laws of countries around the world with the Indian stand taken by the Supreme Court in legalizing passive euthanasia. There exists a ne line between life and death. It is the duty of a medical practitioner to assess these situations critically while preserving a patient's autonomy. To deny a person the right to end their life with dignity is equivalent to depriving them of a meaningful existence.

scholarly journals LIFE AND DEATH. EUTANASIA

2021 ◽  
pp. 63-68
Author(s):  
Mykola Polishchuk
Keyword(s):  
Hospice Care ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Passive Euthanasia ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Sick People ◽  
Care For The Elderly ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Right ◽  
Active And Passive Euthanasia

Euthanasia is a good death in Greek. According to Wikipedia, «euthanasia» is the termination of a person's life in a quick, painless way. Euthanasia is used in people who have incurable diseases and no longer want to suffer from pain, their condition. The term «euthanasia» was first used by F. Bacon to denote easy death in the 17th century. Since 2020, certain types of euthanasia are legally allowed in Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, parts of Australia, and in some of the sUS states. Palliative and hospice care is sometimes seen as a relative alternative to euthanasia. There are two types of euthanasia – active, which involves the administration of a dying person, drugs that cause rapid death, and passive – intentional cessation of maintenance therapy to the patient. Active euthanasia is often considered suicide with medical help, if the doctor gives the patient a drugs that will shorten his life at the request of the patient.. In Ukraine, the actions of a doctor for euthanasia are considered premeditated murder. The coronavirus pandemic has shown that many countries of the world are ready to introduce passive euthanasia, that is, in the event of mass morbidity, not only ideas are spread, but also projects about the inaccessibility of medical care for the elderly in order to save young people, about limiting the hospitalizations of elderly people with a serious illness, which requires mechanical ventilation with a shortage of ventilators and hospitals that can provide oxygenation. The debate over euthanasia revolves around the following issues: people have the right to self-determination and independent choice of destiny; helping the sick people to die may be a better choice than suffering; the difference between active and passive euthanasia is insignificant; permission for euthanasia does not necessarily lead to adverse consequences. Disputes often take place at the ethical or religious level. Opponents of euthanasia defend the right for life under any circumstances, and the adoption of the law expands the cohort of patients with euthanasia and hope for life. Keywords: euthanasia, death, life, consciousness, stroke.

Euthanasia and Related Practices Worldwide

Crisis ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 109-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J Kelleher † ◽  
Derek Chambers ◽  
Paul Corcoran ◽  
Helen S Keeley ◽  
Eileen Williamson
Keyword(s):  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
International Association ◽  
Active Euthanasia ◽  
Physician Assisted Suicide ◽  
Passive Euthanasia ◽  
Medical Practitioners ◽  
General Acceptance ◽  
International Importance ◽  
Controversial Area ◽  
Active And Passive Euthanasia

The present paper examines the occurrence of matters relating to the ending of life, including active euthanasia, which is, technically speaking, illegal worldwide. Interest in this most controversial area is drawn from many varied sources, from legal and medical practitioners to religious and moral ethicists. In some countries, public interest has been mobilized into organizations that attempt to influence legislation relating to euthanasia. Despite the obvious international importance of euthanasia, very little is known about the extent of its practice, whether passive or active, voluntary or involuntary. This examination is based on questionnaires completed by 49 national representatives of the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP), dealing with legal and religious aspects of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, as well as suicide. A dichotomy between the law and medical practices relating to the end of life was uncovered by the results of the survey. In 12 of the 49 countries active euthanasia is said to occur while a general acceptance of passive euthanasia was reported to be widespread. Clearly, definition is crucial in making the distinction between active and passive euthanasia; otherwise, the entire concept may become distorted, and legal acceptance may become more widespread with the effect of broadening the category of individuals to whom euthanasia becomes an available option. The “slippery slope” argument is briefly considered.

Fundamental Rights in the Indian Constitution: Could it include ‘Right to Sanitation’?

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 291-296
Author(s):  
Anil Kumar Mohapatra
Keyword(s):  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Safe Drinking Water ◽  
Right To Life ◽  
Personal Liberty ◽  
Sanitation Facility ◽  
Supreme Court Of India ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The World ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Right

Long before India gained independence, M.K. Gandhi remarked that the availability of Sanitation facility is more important than gaining Independence for an Indian. Of late, it is now increasingly felt and realized in India that facilities like toilet, safe drinking water, accompanied by good hygienic conditions are fundamental necessities of a person. These are prerequisites of social and economic justice and genuine development. The Supreme Court of India in one judgement held that Right to life and personal liberty, should include right to privacy and human dignity etc. Despite that it has been an admitted shame that India still has the largest number of people defecating in open in the world. There are reported incidences of rape and murder of women in many places in India as women rely on open field for attending to the call of nature in morning and evening. The attempts like Community toi-let system, pay-and-use toilet system and schemes like ‘Mo Swabhiman -Mo Paikhana’ have been found to be less effective. In this connection the ‘Clean India Mission’ campaign launched by the Government of India in 2014 has been regarded as a right approach in that direction. Government of the day is actively considering the demand to convert the Right to Sanitation from a developmental right to a fundamental right. It would make the state more accountable and responsible. Against this background, the paper argues that spending huge money on that would yield good dividend in future for the country.

Political Science and Science Fiction

1958 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 1026-1029 ◽  
Author(s):  
John P. Roche
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Public Law ◽  
Frame Of Reference ◽  
Board Of Education ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The World ◽  
The Right

I want to dissent initially from the rather constricting frame of reference that Schubert has established in his paper. He has every right in the world to set rhetorical snares, but I have no intention of walking into them. If I may summarize, Schubert asserts that he is a spokesman for a radical new direction in the study of public law, claiming that the old ways are moribund. He further urges that we should look with envy at the creative function of the social psychologists who supplied the Supreme Court with the banners it carried in Brown v. Board of Education while we were bumbling around with historical and philosophical trivia. He concludes that instead of wasting our time with talmudic disputations on whether the Supreme Court reached the “right” or the “wrong” decisions in specific cases, we should settle down to build a firm “scientific” foundation for our discipline.Not the least amusing aspect of this indictment is that I find myself billed as the defender of the ancien régime, as the de Maistre of public law. Therefore, for the benetfit of the young and impressionistic, let me break loose from Schubert's rhetorical trap: I too think that much of the research done in public law—and, for that matter, in political science generally—has been trivial.

A Scale to Assess Attitudes toward Euthanasia

2005 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 229-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Wasserman ◽  
Jeffrey Michael Clair ◽  
Ferris J. Ritchey
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Research ◽  
Internal Consistency ◽  
Severe Pain ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Sample Variance ◽  
Passive Euthanasia ◽  
Cronbach's Alpha ◽  
Patient’S Autonomy ◽  
External Consistency ◽  
Active And Passive Euthanasia

The topic of euthanasia has been a matter of public debate for several decades. Although empirical research should inform policy, scale measurement is lacking. After analyzing shortcomings of previous work, we offer a systematically designed scale to measure attitudes toward euthanasia. We attempt to encompass previously unspecified dimensions of the phenomenon that are central to the euthanasia debate. The results of our pretest show that our attitude towards euthanasia (ATE) scale is both reliable and valid. We delineate active and passive euthanasia, no chance for recovery and severe pain, and patient's autonomy and doctor's authority. We argue that isolating these factors provides a more robust scale capable of better analyzing sample variance. Internal consistency is established with Cronbach's alpha = .871. Construct external consistency is established by correlating the scale with other predictors such as race and spirituality.

scholarly journals Eutanasia: legal regulation in european countries and prospects for legalization in Ukraine

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 479-486
Author(s):  
Marija V. Mendzhul ◽  
Andrianna Yu. Badyda ◽  
Yuliia I. Fetko ◽  
Roman M. Fridmanskyy ◽  
Viktoriia I. Fridmanska
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Slovak Republic ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Passive Euthanasia ◽  
European Court ◽  
Fundamental Freedoms ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Right

The article is devoted to a comparative legal study of the legalization of euthanasia in European countries and Ukraine. The authors have investigated the changes in the ECHR positions in the consideration of cases of euthanasia and assisted suicide. We concluded that the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights include an attempt to guarantee a balance in the right to choose the moment of death and the rights that are protected by 2 and 8 of the Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The ECHR practice has been found to also influence the legalization of euthanasia in European states. Analysis of the laws of several European states in the context of legalizing the institution of euthanasia allowed us to group them as follows: European states that have legalized euthanasia (Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Spain); European states that have legalized only passive euthanasia (Great Britain, Ireland, Latvia, Norway, Slovak Republic, Finland, Sweden, and Hungary); and European states that prohibit any kind of euthanasia (France, Poland, Romania, etc.).

International Humanitarian Law and the Israeli Supreme Court

2014 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aharon Barak
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
The Political ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The World ◽  
Political Spectrum ◽  
Israeli Supreme Court ◽  
The Right

In contrast with most other municipal courts in the world, the Israeli Supreme Court routinely decides cases based on international humanitarian law (IHL). Since the Six Day War in 1967, both the state and the Supreme Court have agreed that the Court has jurisdiction to decide humanitarian issues that come before it from territory held under belligerent occupation. The Court has indeed done so in issues ranging from land seizures to targeted killings, ruling on the basis of the relevant IHL. The Court has been criticised for its judgments, both from the right wing of the political spectrum, who see it as interfering with military matters, and from the left, who see it as granting legitimacy to occupation. In this article, I briefly describe the development, both historical and legal, of IHL in the Israeli Supreme Court, the criticism of the way the law is applied by the Court, and finally the importance of the fundamental concepts of human dignity and proportionality to IHL decisions.

Under the Law

2018 ◽  
Vol 99 (5) ◽  
pp. 76-77
Author(s):  
Julie Underwood
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
International Law ◽  
Universal Declaration ◽  
Educational Rights ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The World ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Right ◽  
The U.S

The right to an education is guaranteed by international law in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Similarly, UNESCO’s Constitution sets out the right to an education as necessary to “prepare the children of the world for the responsibilities of freedom.” No such right is mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, though. Perhaps Congress or the Supreme Court would be sympathetic, however, to an argument for educational rights based on the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of the rights of citizenship.

Reflections on the Intriguing Issue of the Right to Die in Dignity

1995 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 677-701 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphael Cohen-Almagor
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Patient ◽  
The United States ◽  
Right To Die ◽  
Passive Euthanasia ◽  
Form Of Life ◽  
Israeli Supreme Court ◽  
The Right ◽  
Active And Passive Euthanasia

This study compares how four countries, the United States, Canada, Britain and Israel, conceive active and passive euthanasia and the right to die in dignity. I start the discussion by clarifying the scope of the analysis and by shedding light on the concepts of autonomy and dignity. Section II proceeds by drawing attention to the familiar distinction between active and passive euthanasia, reviewing the current legal positions in the United States, Canada and England. Section III addresses Ronald Dworkin's distinction between experiential and critical interests, and further contemplates the analogy he draws between the destruction of life and the destruction of masterpieces of art. The section continues by contrasting Dworkin's assertion that what we seek is life in earnest, not any form of life, with Leibowitz's view that human life is sacred. In this context I also refer to the recent Scheffer decision, the only ruling at this time by the Israeli Supreme Court on the issue of death with dignity. Section IV considers the Eyal case, involving an amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patient who expressed his wish not to be connected to a respirator. I assert that in such instances, the patients' autonomy would be sustained and their dignity better served by helping them die. It is not always true that keeping a person alive is to treat her best. In some situations we respect a person and her dignity when we help her cease living. My justification for helping such patients fulfill their request rests on the assumption that they freely and genuinely expressed their will to die, and that they persist in expressing that desire.

IASP Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide

Crisis ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 111-115, 120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Kelleher ◽  
David Clark ◽  
Bob Goldney ◽  
Ad Kerkhof ◽  
Jerzy Wasserman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Task Force ◽  
Passive Euthanasia ◽  
The Public ◽  
Legal Situation ◽  
Personal Statement ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Television Film ◽  
Active And Passive Euthanasia

The first meeting of the IASP Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide took place in Venice on June 7, 1995. Several interested observers were present. It was decided that at the public IASP meeting the following day each speaker should address, briefly, the current legal situation and the pressure for change, as well as give a personal statement. David Clark spoke for North America, Bob Goldney for Australia, Michael Kelleher for Britain and Ireland, Jerzy Wasserman for Scandinavia, and Hans Wedler for the German-speaking world. Their views are published in this article. Ad Kerkhof requested that the Dutch television film “Death on Request” be discussed. The committee was of the opinion that clear definitions were essential. In their view, these should take into account the differences between active and passive euthanasia, as well as between professionally assisted and lay-assisted suicide.

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