Salma Faouzi Zizi

Euthanasia or mercy killing is a word that

 has a Greek root, and it can be devided

 into two parts Eu: good/well Thanasia:

 death. Acoording to the online medical dictionary, euthanasia is:" the act or practice of ending the life of an individual suffering from a terminal illness or an incurable condition, as by lethal injection or the suspension of extraordinary medical treatment. 

  There are two types of Euthansia active and passive. According to http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/euthanasia/overview/activepassive_1.shtml, active euthansia occurs when the medical profesionnals, or anyone else calculatingly caues the death of the patient, and in this case this patient and his family are aware of what will happen; while passive euthanasia is when medical profesionnals suspend treatment in patients, or stop doing somthing that is keeping the patint alive. In this case medical profetionnals may use a lots of ways:

1- Disconnect a feeding-tube.

2- Don't give appropriate medicines.

3- Switch -off life support-machines.

4-Suffocation with a plastic bag.

5- Gassing patients to death with carbon monoxide.

6- Lethal injection but it is not a very common way to euthanize a person as it decreases the bloodstream.

  The most major reason why people euthanize is to releave and put an end to the terrible suffering and pain of a terminally ill person with an incurable disease. It is a desperate act after many years of suffering and pain, and somtimes it is better for some people to die than being alive. According to killing and letting die book: " sometimes defective newborns are neglected in order that they might die. In such case, death is viewed as preferable to life for the infants, and this may be a reasonable attitude.("Killing and letting die" edited by Bonnie Steinbock and Alastair Norcross, second edition page 36). The second major cause of euthansia is compassion and mercy as there are some people who have incurable diseases like cancer, so they choose death instead of being alive and suffering.A lot of poeple confuse between euthansia and assisted suicide; assisted suicide is to provide the patient with means that help him or her to carry out death, so in this case it can be called SUICIDE.

  Euthansia is always considered as an ugly subject and a debatable where we have so many points of view. Arguments of people supporting euthansia are three: 

1- Death is a privat matter and as long as it doesn't create any harm to people, society others have no right to interface.

2-Violation of autonomy, so everyone of us is free to do whatever he or she wants .

3- Human dignity and ecency, prolonging the life of a patient that doesn't have any hope to live creates nothing but humulation and pain to this him or her.

  Arguments of people who are agianst euthansia are also three:

1- Religious abjections : peole have no right to put an end to their life because only God who can do that.

2- Secular objections: our rights are always limited by our obligations because our death may cause harm to our family, friend and even our siciety.

3- Philosophical objections:

Life has a value in itself, so we have to protect human's life .