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relieve pain and suffering. Euthanasia, assisted suicide or mercy killing refers to
treatment or withholding nutrition and hydration with intent to let someone die.
knowledge for the purpose of ending a life (Mueller 2010). Voluntary euthanasia is
ending ones life with informed consent. Involuntary euthanasia refers to ending
There are different euthanasia laws in each country. The British House of Lords
(highest legal body in England and Wales). Select Committee on Medical Ethics
a patient".
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euthanasia (without asking consent or against the patient's will) is also illegal in all
countries and is usually considered murder As of 2006, euthanasia is the most active
In some countries there is a divisive public controversy over the moral, ethical,
and legal issues of euthanasia. Those who are against euthanasia may argue for the
There is a debate within the medical and bioethics literature about whether or not
offered by Beauchamp and Davidson and, later, by Wreen, consent on the part of the
patient was not considered as one of their criteria, although it may have been required
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about his or her own death with the assistance of a physician, the term assisted
suicide is often used instead. Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland and the U.S.
euthanasia, supra.
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divided into passive or active variants. Passive euthanasia entails the withholding
practiced long before that date. Euthanasia was practiced in Ancient Greece and
Rome: for example, hemlock was employed as a means of hastening death on the
island of Kea, a technique also employed in Marseilles. Euthanasia, in the sense of the
deliberate hastening of a person's death, was supported by Socrates, Plato and Seneca
the Elder in the ancient world, although Hippocrates appears to have spoken against
the practices, writing "I will not prescribe a deadly drug to please someone, nor give
advice that may cause his death" (noting there is some debate in the literature about
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The term "euthanasia" in the earlier sense of supporting someone as they died
was used for the first time by Francis Bacon (1561-1626). In his work, Euthanasia
medica, he chose this ancient Greek word and, in doing so, distinguished between
euthanasia interior, the preparation of the soul for death, and euthanasia exterior,
which was intended to make the end of life easier and painless, in exceptional
circumstances by shortening life. That the ancient meaning of an easy death came to
the fore again in the early modern period can be seen from its definition in the 18th
Euthanasia: a very gentle and quiet death, which happens without painful
convulsions. The word comes from , bene, well, and , mors, death.
The concept of euthanasia in the sense of alleviating the process of death goes
back to the medical historian, Karl Friedrich Heinrich Marx, who drew on Bacon's
philosophical ideas. According to Marx, a doctor had a moral duty to ease the
Such an "alleviation of death" reflected the contemporary Zeitgiest, but was brought
into the medical canon of responsibility for the first time by Marx. Marx also stressed
In Washington v. Glucksberg, 521 U,S 702 (1997), was a case in which the
Supreme Court of The United States unanimously held that a right to assistance in
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The fact of the case was that Dr. Harold Glucksberg, a physician; four other
ban against assisted suicide in the Natural Death Act 1979. They claimed that assisted
suicide was a liberty interest protected by the Due Process Clause of the 14 th
The District Court ruled in favor of Glucksberg, but the US Court of Appeal of 9 th
Circuit reversed. Then, after rehearing the case en banc, the Ninth Circuit reversed
the earlier panel and affirmed the District Court's decision. The case was argued
before the United States Supreme Court on January 8, 1997. The question presented
was whether the protection of the Due Process Clause included a right to commit
Chief Justice Rehnquist wrote the majority opinion for the court. His decision
reversed a 9th Circuit C.A decision that a ban on physician assisted suicide embodied
Due Process Clause. The Court held that because assisted suicide is not a fundamental
liberty interest, it was not protected under the 14th Amendment. As previously
decided in Moore vs East Cleveland, liberty interests not "deeply rooted in the
nation's history" do not qualify as being a protected liberty interest. Assisted suicide,
the court found, had been frowned upon for centuries and a majority of the States had
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similar bans on assisted suicide. Rehnquist found the English common law penalties
common law the state confiscated the property of a person who committed suicide.
Like Blackmun in Roe vs Wade, Rehnquist used English common law to establish
American tradition as a yardstick for determining what rights were "deeply rooted in
the nation's history." Rehnquist cited Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood vs Casey
in the opinion.
The Court felt that the ban was rational in that it furthered such compelling state
interests as the preservation of human life and the protection of the mentally ill and
disabled from medical malpractice and coercion. It also prevented those moved to end
their lives because of financial or psychological complications. The Court also felt
they would start down the path to voluntary and perhaps involuntary euthanasia.
Justice O'Connor concurred. Justices Souter, Ginsburg, Breyer, and Stevens each
wrote opinions concurring in the judgment of the court. In 2008 Washington State
voters approved 58%42% the Washingtom Death with Dignity Act, which
established guidelines for using the services of a physician to terminate one's life.
new service which was formally introduced in the Ministry of Health (MOH) in 1995.
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that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing problems
people with serious illness. It focuses on providing patients with relief from the
symptoms, pain, physical stress, and mental stress of a serious illness-whatever the
diagnosis. The goal of such therapy is to improve quality of life for both the patient
and the family. Palliative care is provided by a team of physicians, nurses, and other
health professionals who work together with the primary care physician and referred
specialist (or, for patients who don't have those, hospital or hospice staff) to provide
an extra layer of support. It is appropriate at any age and at any stage in a serious
illness and can be provided as the main goal of care or along with curative treatment.
Palliative care can be provided across multiple settings including in hospitals, in the
patient's home, as part of community palliative care programs, and in skilled nursing
facilities.
Interdisciplinary palliative care teams work with patients and their families to
clarify goals of care and provide symptom management, psycho-social, and spiritual
support.
Physicians sometimes use the term palliative care in a sense meaning palliative
therapies without curative intent, when no cure can be expected (as often happens in
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late-stage cancers). For example, tumor debunking can continue to reduce pain from
noncurative therapy when that is what is meant, because palliative care can be used
Starting in 2006 in the United States, palliative medicine is now a board certified
patient care, relying on input from pharmacist, nurses, chaplains, social workers,
relieve suffering in all areas of a patient's life. This multidisciplinary approach allows
the palliative care team to address physical, emotional, spiritual and social concerns
Medication and treatments are said to have a palliative effect if they relieve
symptoms without having a curative effect on the underlying disease or cause. This
morphine to treat the pain of broken leg or ibuprofen to treat aching related to an
Although the concept of palliative care is not new, most physicians have
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The focus on a person's quality of life has increased greatly since the 1990s. In
the United States today, 55% of hospitals with more than 100 beds offer a palliative-
The debate over euthanasia has been an issue almost in all societies across times
and space. However, euthanasia has become one of the most controversial topics of
our age. The controversy over euthanasia is fueled by perplexity over the point of
respiratory, and pulsation system as in the past. This is because, assisted with new
medical developments like artificial respirators and technology that provide palliative
care, nutrition and hydration, bodily vital functions and organs can continue to operate
artificially.
institution is that, when does clinical death occur? Are individual on life support
Equally polarizing is the question that, who should make the final end of life
decision?
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REFERENCE
1. http://www.palliativecare.my/
2. https://www.hospismalaysia.org/
3. http://www.thestar.com.my/lifestyle/health/2015/04/12/pushing-for-endoflife-
care-in-malaysia/
4. https://www.oyez.org/cases/1989/88-1503
5. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy. Vol. 33 No. 3/4, 2013 pp.
203-217 . Dorothy J.N. Kalanzi. The controversy over euthanasia in Uganda: a
case of the Baganda.
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