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|
 | Meanings of terms |
| Why is it an issue? |
| Beliefs about suicide and euthanasia |
Meanings of Terms
Most people in North America die what may be called a bad death. One study found that "More often than not, patients died in pain, their desires concerning treatment neglected, after spending 10 days or more in an intensive care unit." cited in Ref. 1
The word Euthanasia originated from the Greek language: eu means "good" and thanatos means "death". One meaning given to the word is "the intentional termination of life by another at the explicit request of the person who dies." 2 That is, the term euthanasia normally implies that the act must be initiated by the person who wishes to commit suicide. However, some people define euthanasia to include both voluntary and involuntary termination of life. Like so many moral/ethical/religious terms, "euthanasia" has many meanings. The result is mass confusion.
It is important to differentiate among a number of vaguely related terms:
| Passive Euthanasia: Hastening the death of a person by
altering some form of
support and letting nature take its course. For example:
Perhaps the most common form of passive euthanasia is to give a patient large doses of morphine to control pain, in spite of the likelihood that the pain-killer will suppress respiration and cause death earlier than it would otherwise have happened. Such doses of pain killers have a dual effect of relieving pain and hastening death. Administering such medication is regarded as ethical in most political jurisdictions and by most medical societies. |
These procedures are performed on terminally ill, suffering persons so that natural death will occur sooner. It is also done on persons in a Persistent Vegetative State - individuals with massive brain damage who are in a coma from which they cannot possibly regain consciousness.
| Active Euthanasia: This involves causing the death of a person through a direct
action, in response to a request from that person. A well known example was the mercy
killing in 1998 of a patient with ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) by Dr. Jack
Kevorkian, a
Michigan physician. His patient was frightened that the advancing disease
would cause him to die a horrible death in the near future; he wanted a quick, painless
exit from life. Dr. Kevorkian injected controlled substances into the patient, thus causing his
death. Charged with 1st degree murder, the jury found him guilty of 2nd
degree murder in 1999-MAR. |
| Physician Assisted Suicide: A physician supplies information and/or the
means of committing suicide (e.g. a prescription for lethal dose of sleeping pills, or
a supply of carbon monoxide gas)
to a person, so that they can easily terminate their own life. The term "voluntary
passive euthanasia" (VPE) is becoming commonly used. One writer
3
suggests the use of the verb "to kevork". This is derived from the name
of Dr. Kevorkian, who has promoted VPE and assisted at the deaths of hundreds of patients.
Originally he hooked his patients up to a machine that delivered measured doses of
medications, but only after the patient pushed a button to initiate the sequence. More
recently, he provided carbon monoxide and a face mask so that his patient could initiate
the flow of gas.
|
| Involuntary Euthanasia: This term is used by some to describe the killing of a person who has not explicitly requested aid in dying. This is most often done to patients who are in a Persistent Vegetative State and will probably never recover consciousness. |
Why is it an issue?
People have many different reasons for wanting to end their life by committing suicide:
| Some are severely depressed over a long interval. To them, suicide may be a "permanent solution to a temporary problem." There is a consensus that a better solution for most clinically depressed people is treatment, using counseling and/or medication. Such treatment can give to the person decades of enjoyable life which would have been lost if they committed suicide. |
| They live in excessive, chronic pain. Some, due to poverty or lack of health-care coverage cannot afford pain killing medication. Others are denied adequate pain killers because of their physician's lack of knowledge, inadequate training, or specific beliefs. Most physicians feel that suicide in such cases is not a preferred solution either; a better approach is proper management of pain through medication. There appears to be a lack of collective will to make this happen. Many, perhaps most, people die in excessive, though treatable, pain. |
| They have a terminal illness and do not want to diminish their assets by incurring large medical costs as their death approaches. As an act of generosity, they would rather die sooner, and pass on their assets to their beneficiaries. |
| A serious disorder or disease has adversely effected their quality of life to the point where they no longer wish to continue living. |
| They have been diagnosed with a degenerative, progressive illness like ALS, Huntington's Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, AIDS, Alzheimer's etc. They fear a gradual loss of the quality of life in the future as the disease or disorder progresses. |
| They have lost their independence and must be cared for continually. Some feel that this causes an unacceptable loss of personal dignity. |
| They realize that they will be dying in the near future and simply want to have total control over the process. |
| Some are concerned about the future and want to have suicide available as an option. |
Some people who decide that they wish to commit suicide are unable to accomplish the act. They need assistance from their physician. Physician assisted suicide helps them die under conditions and at the time that they wish. PAS is currently legal, under severe restrictions, only in the American state of Oregon and in the Netherlands. In other jurisdictions, they are forced to continue living against their wish, until their body eventually collapses, or until a family member or friend commits a criminal act by helping them commit suicide.
An analysis of the first full year of the availability of assisted suicide in Oregon showed that relatively few people requested help in dying. Some were probably deterred by the resistance of their physician. Only 23 actually obtained medication to induce their death. At least six of the 23 never used the pills, but died a natural death.
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Beliefs about Suicide:
Ultimately, there are two approaches to suicide:
| Traditional Christian beliefs concerning all forms of suicide were well documented by
Thomas Aquinas (circa 1225-1274 CE). He condemned all suicide (whether assisted or not)
because:
| ||||||
| Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592 CE) was the first major dissenter among European writers. He wrote a series of five essays which touched on the subject of suicide. He argued that suicide should be considered a matter of personal choice, a human right. He indicated that it is a rational option under some circumstances. In his "A defense of legal suicide" (1580), he wrote: "Death is a remedy against all evils: It is a most assured haven, never to be feared, and often to be sought: All comes to one period, whether man makes an end of himself, or whether he endure it; whether he run before his day, or whether he expect it: whence soever it come, it is ever his own, where ever the thread be broken, it is all there, it's the end of the web. The voluntariest death is the fairest. Life dependeth on the will of others, death on ours." |
These two basic positions remain essentially unchanged today. Attempting to commit suicide was once a criminal act. It has been decriminalized for many decades in most jurisdictions in North America. However, assisted suicide remains a criminal act throughout North America, with the exception of the state of Oregon. In that state, it is permitted under tightly controlled conditions.
References used in the above essay:
- John Horgan, "Right to Die," Scientific American, 1996-MAY.
- Definition of Euthanasia by the Netherlands State Commission on Euthanasia.
- Martin Levin, "Verdicts on Verdicts About Easeful Death", the Globe and Mail, Toronto, 1996-AUG-10, Page D5.
- "Suicide, The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy," at: http://www.utm.edu/
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Site navigation: Home page > "Hot" topics > Assisted Suicide > here |
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Copyright © 1997 to 2002 incl., by Ontario Consultants on
Religious Tolerance
Last updated on 2002-DEC-7
Hyperlinks checked on 2001-NOV-7
Author: B.A. Robinson
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