Euthanaisa,Should It Be An Issue At All, Can We Justify It And Why Is It Such A Controversial Issue Today

Introduction

The title of the topic for this assignment is: - "Euthanasia, should it be an issue at all, can we justify it and why is it such a controversial issue today." This assignment will look at the ethical issues of Euthanasia in the area of people who are in a coma, is brain dead or are in a persistent vegetative state.

What is Euthanasia?

There are a few definitions for Euthanasia . They are:

 Voluntary Euthanasia is when the person killed has requested to be killed.

 Non-voluntary Euthanasia is when the person who is killed did not request or consent to be killed.

 Involuntary Euthanasia is when the person who is killed made and expressed wish to the contrary.

 Assisted suicide is when the person who wishes to die is given information and guidance on how to take their own life and when a doctor is involved, it is now called "physician assisted suicide".

 Euthanasia by Action is when the person is given a lethal dose of drug to intentionally kill the person.

 Euthanasia by Omission is when care and nourishment is not provided to intentionally cause the person's death.

However, for the purpose of this assignment, Euthanasia is studied as a whole. So now, what is Euthanasia? Well, it is the intentional killing of a person by an act or omission of a dependent human being for their alleged benefit. The key word here is 'intentional' because if death is not intended, then it is not an act of Euthanasia. So what type of persons will ask for Euthanasia to be administered to them? They are usually people who are suffering from cancer, AIDs or some sort of neurological disease. These illnesses are usually incurable. Surprisingly, in some countries, like Oregon, the Netherlands and Belgium , Euthanasia is legalized. Oregon permits assisted suicide which means that a person is taught on how to administer a drug which is usually derived from opium or contains opium. These patients would then have what one would call 'the last supper' or 'gathering' and when they feel that the time is right, they would either inject or consume the drug in front of people that are close to them. This usually leads to instant death. As for the Netherlands and Belgium, both countries permit both Euthanasia and assisted suicide. In 1995, Australia's Northern Territory actually approved a Euthanasia bill. It was carried out in 1996 but then in 1997, the Australian Parliament overturned it and took it out.

Euthanasia is rather common in a 'quiet' sense. This is depicted in a survey of some nurses and the results are rather startling. 71% of nurses responded and of that, 17% said that they had been asked by patients to perform euthanasia. 16% said that they have participated in euthanasia at least once. 8% stated that they have participated in euthanasia in the previous year, while 5% of the nurses had participated in euthanasia for more than 20 times. Some 7% of the nurses even admitted that they had done euthanasia without the consent of the patient or the patient's family or surrogate. 8% of the nurses also claimed that they have administered euthanasia without the physician's consent. The most common method of euthanasia was a lethal dose of an opiate which is a drug that contains opium or is derived from opium like morphine, heroine or codeine.

Now the question is, why so much euthanasia? Well there are four possible answers :-

1. there is an overuse of life sustaining modalities;

2. there is a deep sense of responsibility for the patients;

3. the desire to relieve the sufferings of the patient;

4. there is also the attempt to override the physician's lack of responsiveness to the patient's sufferings.

What is Coma?

Now the paper will discuss what a coma is in regards to euthanasia. The definition of coma is :-

"The extended period of unconsciousness from which a person cannot be aroused even with the most painful stimuli. Coma is not a disease. It is a symptom of a disease or a response to an event, such as a severe head injury, seizure or metabolic problem."

The symptoms of a coma is when the patient is unable to be aroused to consciousness and other symptoms includes the lack of self-awareness, the lack of a sleep-wake cycle, the lack of purposeful movements, the lack of suffering and impaired breathing.

The most common cause of a coma is severe head injury. Other causes are, large consumption of alcohol, diabetes, morphine, shock or haemorrhage (brain). However, we need to take note that patients in a coma for more than 4 weeks, can lapse into PVS (persistent vegetative state) .

What is Brain Death?

Brain death is defined as the complete and irreversible absence of all brain function as demonstrated by profound coma, apnea and the absence of all brain-stem reflexes . The most common causes of brain death includes trauma, intracranial hemorrhage, hypoxia due to resuscitation after cardiac arrest, drug overdose or near drowning, primary brain tumour, meningitis, homicide and suicide . However, there are some people who have argued that the definition of whole-brain death should be amended to incorporate persons in a persistent vegetative state, meaning those persons that are experiencing the irreversible loss of their higher brain functions. They have argued that consciousness and the capacity to relate to other people and the wider world defines the characteristics of human beings. Thus, since the part of the brain responsible for consciousness and interaction with the world is dead, this is equivalent to the death of that person. However, higher-brain definition of death has not gain acceptance . Although, having said this, in cases where the brain dead person is pregnant or to be used for organ transplant, they can be kept alive in the cardiopulmonary sense in order to gestate the baby to term or to maintain the person for organ transplant . There have been no known cases of patients who have been diagnosed with brain death who have ever regain consciousness.

What is Persistent Vegetative State?

This is when the person loses the cognitive or higher part of the cerebral powers of the brain. However, they maintain sleep-wake