Euthanasia

1. Euthanasia Student created 2005- 2009

2. Euthanasia

3. Euthanasia definition Euthanasia: the intentional killing by act or omission of a dependent human being for his or her alleged benefit. (The key word here is "intentional". If death is not intended, it is not an act of euthanasia) Voluntary euthanasia: When the person who is killed has requested to be killed. Non-voluntary: When the patient who is killed made no request and gave no consent. Involuntary euthanasia: When the person who is killed made an expressed wish to the contrary.

4. Euthanasia Assisted suicide: Someone provides an individual with the information, guidance, and means to take his or her own life with the intention that they will be used for this purpose. When it is a doctor who helps another person to kill themselves it is called "physician assisted suicide." Euthanasia By Action: Intentionally causing a person's death by performing an action such as by giving a lethal injection. Euthanasia By Omission: Intentionally causing death by not providing necessary and ordinary (usual and customary) care or food and water.

5. More on Two Types of Euthanasia 1. Active or Direct 2. Passive or Indirect

6. Active or Direct • taking deliberate steps to end the life of a suffering and incurably ill person. • This can occur with or without the consent of the patient. • Active euthanasia involves the direct and intentional taking of life.

7. Passive or Indirect • deliberately not taking steps to prevent a sick person’s death, with the desire and intention that this “withholding” will lead to death. • May occur with or without consent of patient. • Passive euthanasia is taking a life, however well- or ill-meaning the intention.

8. History • 400 B.C. - The Hippocratic Oath • “I will give no deadly medicine to anyone if asked, nor suggest any such counsel.” • 14th through 20th Century - English Common Law • “For over 700 years, the Anglo American common law tradition has punished or otherwise disapproved of both suicide and assisting suicide.” • 19th Century - Washington vs. Glucksberg • “The right to life and to personal security is not only sacred in the estimation of the common law, but it is inalienable.” • 1939 - Nazi Germany • Hitler ordered widespread mercy killing of the sick and disabled. • 1995 - Australia’s Northern Territory Approves a Euthanasia Bill • Went into effect in 1996, but it was overturned by the Australian Parliament in 1997 • 1998 - Oregon Legalizes Assisted - Suicide • 2000 - Netherlands Legalizes Euthanasia

9. Oregon's Death with Dignity Act • On October 27, 1997 physician-assisted suicide became a legal medical option for terminally ill Oregonians. The Oregon Death with Dignity Act requires that the Oregon Health Services (OHS) monitor compliance with the law, collect information about the patients and physicians who participate in legal physician-assisted suicide, and publish an annual statistical report.

10. United States • Oregon becomes the first US state to legalize assisted suicide with the "Death With Dignity Act." Washington state followed in November 2008 and a Montana court supported an individual euthanasia case in December 2008. http://euthanasia.procon.org/viewresource.asp?resourceID=000130

13. Pro Euthanasia • “Death with Dignity” means that patients die peacefully, surrounded by their families and doctors, instead of being suffocated by plastic bags or gassed with carbon monoxide as it happens now. • Modern Technology keeps people alive hooked up to Machines. • Government doesn’t have the right to keep people alive.

14. Pro continued… • People should have the right to commit suicide. • Euthanasia should be provided to people who are terminally ill. • Euthanasia sometimes is the only way to relieve excruciating pain. • Opposition to Euthanasia is just an attempt to impose religious beliefs on others. • Suicide isn’t against the law; why should it be illegal to help someone commit suicide?

15. “The care of human life and happiness and not their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of good government.” - Thomas Jefferson

16. CON • People who have been gassed to death by Jack Kevorkian have been left in the back seat of cars in abandoned parking lots. • Other attempts to legalize it have only legitimized the use of plastic bags and gassed death. • Families sometimes have to watch an injection that will lead to violent convulsions and muscle spasms.

17. Con continued • The law already permits patients (or their surrogates) to choose not to be forced to remain alive by being hooked up to machines or to choose for various interventions to be withheld. • Neither the law or medical ethics requires that everything be done to keep a person alive.

18. Con etc…. • Laws against Euthanasia are in place to prevent abuse and to protect people from unscrupulous doctors and others. They are not intended to make anyone suffer. • “Euthanasia isn’t about the right to die, its about the right to kill!” • The term “Terminal” is not very clearly defined.

19. The Morality Issue • Death-a person is dead when essential life systems no longer function (lungs, brain, heart, etc.) • Threshold of life and death seem clearly defined.

20. The Morality Issue cont’d • In reality, the threshold between life and death is made unclear though the complexity in the dying process. • New and improved medical technology raise important new moral decisions.

21. The Church’s Principles • Life is a gift from God • It must be protected by all reasonable means • Dying is a natural process • The refusal and withdrawal of drugs and other interventions are not of themselves euthanasia • Humans are not separate disconnected individuals • As a community, they have the duty to care for and to enhance the life of an individual • The measure of society’s integrity is its capacity to care for the most weak and vulnerable • People should not feel like they have a “duty to die”

22. The Church’s Position • Church teaching condemns euthanasia. • “Euthanasia in the strict sense is understood to be an action or omission which of itself and by intention causes death, with the purpose of eliminating all suffering.” -Pope John Paul II (The Gospel of Life, number 65)

23. Further Explanation of Church’s Position • The Pope recognizes that sometimes people use the term to refer to actions that are not, strictly speaking, euthanasia. • He points out that the same action may or may not fall under this strict definition of “euthanasia” depending on the kind of act and the intention behind the action.

24. The Church’s Position • God’s grace can come through even in times of great sorrow and loss such as those accompanying the dying of a loved one.

25. The Catholic Church • Allowing Death to Occur is Not the Same as Killing • “When inevitable death is imminent in spite of the means used, it is permitted in conscience to take the decision to refuse forms of treatment that would only secure a precarious and burdensome prolongation of life” – Declaration of Euthanasia, number 4

26. Further Explanation of Church’s Position • The refusal of “over-zealous” treatment for a terminally ill patient is not euthanasia.

27. Further Explanation of Church’s Position • Discontinuing medical procedures that are burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary, or disproportionate to the expected outcome is not euthanasia. --2278 Catechism

28. The Catholic Church “Even if death is thought imminent, the ordinary care owed to a sick person cannot be legitimately interrupted.  The use of painkillers to alleviate the sufferings of the dying, even at the risk of shortening their days, can be morally in conformity with human dignity if death is not willed as either an end or a means, but only foreseen and tolerated as inevitable.”  --2279 Catechism

29. The Catholic Church and Euthanasia By Omission • Euthanasia By Omission is not acceptable : Intentionally causing death by not providing necessary and ordinary (usual and customary) care or food and water.

30. Jack Kevorkian • DR. JACK KEVORKIAN operates on a simple philosophy: People have a right to avoid a lingering, miserable death by ending their own lives with help from a physician who can ensure that they die peacefully.

31. Dr. Kevorkian • In the late 1980s Kevorkian built a machine that helped people commit suicide by giving them a narcotic followed by a lethal dose of potassium chloride. Kevorkian found his first client in Janet Adkins.

32. Dr. Kevorkian • Dr. Kevorkian has helped at least 130 people kill themselves.

33. Dr. Kevorkian • Dr. Kevorkian was released from prison in 2007.

36. What We Should Do • Get a living will or a designated decision maker for the the patient • Living Will a declaration that a competent adult makes identifying the medical care desired if he becomes incapacitated • Designated Decision Maker someone appointed to make decisions for a person who is incapacitated • Be a part of the hospice movement • Hospice an intense multi-faceted, spiritually based approach to assisting people through the dying process

37. Hospice • Considers death and dying as normal aspects of life • Advocates family involvement in caring for the dying person, including care within the person’s home for as long as it is beneficial • Seeks to help those who are dying to be givers as well as receivers of care in the community of mutual support • Actively involves dying persons in decisions • Sees the spiritual dimensions as very important for dying persons and fosters spiritual preparation for death