Euthanasia ~ A Critique essays

Euthanasia ~ A Critique essays A Brief Summary: This essay was written as a critique on the topic of Euthanasia. It argues euthanasia on three settings: a journal article, a Californian legislative initiative, and on public policy in the Netherlands. The journal article, titled "It's over, Debbie," talks about a dramatic and emotional first person account of euthanasia. The legislative initiative represents a group of Californians who tried to make euthanasia legal, through the referendum process. The initiative, called the California Humane and Dignified Death Act, required 450,000 public signatures, but only garnered 130,000. The third setting was the public policy on euthanasia in the Netherlands. It talks about how euthanasia is not technically illegal. It says that although killing and murder is illegal, physicians who perform euthanasia on patients will not be punished. An estimated 5,000 to 10,000 patients get euthanized annually in the Netherlands. They authors define euthanasia as: "The deliberate action of a physician to terminate the life of a patient." Proponents argue that "patients whose illnesses cause them unbearable suffering should be permitted to end their distress by having a physician perform euthanasia." They also argue that one of the rights of the patient is to request and to receive euthanasia. After stating the two major claims of the proponents, the authors rebuttal that "the public good served by the prohibition of euthanasia outweighs the private interests of the persons requesting it." The opponents' argue can be broken down into four major categories of involuntary euthanasia. The first is called crypthanasia (meaning secret euthanasia). Opponents claim that some vulnerable patients are euthanized without their consent. The second type is called encouraged euthanasia, where chronically ill or dying patients may be pressured to choose euthanasia to spare their families financial and emotional strain. T...