Euthanasia-Assisted Suicide Essay, Research Paper

Webster’s dictionary defines the term euthanasia as a painless, happy death. In recent years, a new term – assisted euthanasia has been introduced. This is when a terminally ill patient is assisted in committing suicide by their doctor or even by a friend or relative.

There is a story which I read of an Aids patient. As he approached his time of death, he decided that rather than prolonging the suffering of both himself and his wife, he would take the matter into his own hands and commit suicide. He realized however that he needed some assistance. He contacted a doctor and asked if he’d be willing to help him. The doctor at first refused saying that he was not a barbarian, and that his job is to prolong life, not to end it. The patient replied that if he didn’t help him, thus prolonging his suffering, that would make him a barbarian. The doctor eventually gave in and a plan was formulated. It was decided that the patient would begin to take barbituaries on his own. The doctor would later come to make sure they did their job, and if they hadn’t, he would give the patient an injection of morphine which would be sure to do the job. On the planned day, the doctor realized that he would be caught when the autopsy was done and they found morphine in his blood. Which doctor prescribed morphine and why was that doctor in his apartment? He decided not to go and hoped that the barbituaries would do their job. They didn’t and the man was found unconscious, but still living and brought to the hospital. His attempt to commit suicide was unsuccessful, however it did result in a severe case of pneumonia. When he regained consciousness the doctor visited him and asked if he still wanted to die. He shook his head no. He wanted to live. 12 days later, the man died in the hospital.

Some may say that the doctor was perfectly justified in his decision to help the patient commit suicide. They believed that it is a patient’s right to decide when to die rather than suffer and that it is the doctor’s right to help his patient. Although in this story the doctor was not successful, he had in fact decided to partake in assisted euthanasia. I believe this story illustrates perfectly my opposing opinion. I believe that assisted euthanasia can be nothing but a mistake and a crime.

Firstly, as we see in this story, a doctor can never be sure of his patient’s true feelings despite their assurances. It is always possible that the patient is acting out of desperation, or fear. Deep down many patients still want to live, but are pressured by their relatives, or they’re too scared to face the pain of their sickness. A doctor can never really be sure that his patient really wants to die.

Secondly, U.S. law forbids intentional homicide. Assisted euthanasia is a form of premeditated murder. The law makes no mention of the killer’s intentions making killing out of mercy justifiable. The bottom line is that mercy killing is still killing.

Aside from U.S. law, a doctor has also agreed to follow another code of law; the medical ethic. The oath of Hippocrates states that killing a patient, even on request, is a huge violation of what a doctor stands for. The Judicial Council of the American Medical Association says that even in cases of dying patients a physician “should not intentionally cause death.” Assisted euthanasia can never be an ethically acceptable medical practice despite legal tolerance.

In addition to all of these reasons, and most important, Jewish Law states that assisted euthanasia and anything similar to it is prohibited. In the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, the Concise Book of Jewish Law, it says in Chapter 194, paragraph 1, “A dying person is to be considered as a living being in all matters and it is forbidden to touch him lest his death be hastened by it. Whoever touches him is considered like one who sheds blood…Even if a patient is agonizing a long time, and he and his kin are in great distress, it is, nevertheless, forbidden to hasten his death, by removing, for instance, the pillows under his head.”

We see from this that the Torah sees any actions that would speed up the patient’s death as murder. If the Torah prohibits such slight actions such as removing a pillow from under the patient’s head then actively killing the patient is definitely prohibited.

In conclusion, assisted euthanasia is only a hidden, safe way to say murder. A way to protect one’s conscience from the guilt that comes with assisting someone in their own death. Life is a gift that is given to each of us by G-d. Some mistakenly think that this gift is theirs to do with what they want. However, our life is only a loan from G-d and we must treat it as such, for we do not have the right to end it when we see fit.