Euthanasia

by Ethan Kong

​ Credit: Friedreich’ Ataxia News

Ethan Kong

Ms. Abad

Expository Reading and Writing Composition

7 November 2018
 Outline

I. Introduction
A. Background history
B. Why euthanasia is an important topic
C. Definition on euthanasia and on assisted suicide
D. Doctors should be allowed to perform euthanasia on specific patients

II. Perspectives on Euthanasia

A. Religion
B. Racial Culture
1. Japanese
2. Greek and Romans
C. Philosophers
1. Plato
2. Hippocrates

III. American Law

A. Our natural law
B. Our rights to privacy

IV. Court Rulings

A. The Ruling of Quinlan in 1976

B. The case of Bouvia vs The Superior Court
C. The case of Terri Schiavo (2000)

V. Reasons against Legalization of Euthanasia

A. Reasons for patients to request

B. Dr. Jack Kevorkian

VI. Reasons to Legalize Euthanasia

A. Advancements in technology
B. Peter Saul TED talk
C. Percy Bridgman suicides

VII. Conclusion

A. Restate thesis
B. Restate Explanations
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Ethan Kong

Ms. Abad

Expository Reading and Writing Composition

7 November 2018

Euthanasia

In today’s society many advances have been made especially in technology and with the increases

in advancements, many are applied to our medicine. With the advancements, we have technology such as

ventilators, feeding tubes, and treatments that can help cure diseases however some of these

advancements, only contribute to prolonging life. In the past, many patients would die with loved ones

surrounding them due to the lack of sufficient medicine advancements however now many patients

usually die within a hospital. The natural and quick deaths of these patients have brought up issues about

whether a suffering patient’s wish to die should be respected. If yes, then do the patients have the right to

request the help from doctors? How about those who are in a coma or vegetable state do the family

members have the right to choose whether they live or die?

Two major issues that have been debated about within the medical community are euthanasia and

assisted suicide. The word “euthanasia” has a negative tone especially within society nowadays however

when looking at the history of “euthanasia” to some it meant “merciful death” and some people even

viewed suicide as “honorable”. Euthanasia can be separated into two different categories: active and

passive. Active euthanasia is when there is a third party included, for example, a physician or family

member, and they help assist the person to commit suicide. Passive suicide is when a patient who has a

disease stops receiving life-sustaining treatment or a equipment and dies naturally. In between both active

and passive euthanasia, there is physician-assisted suicide which is basically when a patient decides to
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commit suicide using a prescribed drug from the physician. Currently, euthanasia is illegal, but doctors

should be allowed to perform it on specific patients with incurable diseases and immense pain within

medical facilities.

Perspectives on Euthanasia

Euthanasia tends to start up controversial debates within modern society due to it being the result

of a person’s death. Throughout history, though death has been viewed as the opposite of birth since it

means ones soul/spirit leaving the body. The way religions view suicide and euthanasia differ on what

religion it is. “Christians are mostly against euthanasia. . . life is given by God and that human beings are

made in the image of God” (2014). The Catholic church believes that “no one can in any way permit the

killing. . . no one is permitted to ask for this act of killing” (2014). Many religions believe that asking or

doing the act of suicide is against everything they believe in since it means taking the life given to one by

their God or higher being. However, though some racial cultures believe the opposite of how religious

view euthanasia and suicide. Suicide was viewed and done as a way to save/preserve one’s family honor

is Asia. Dating back hundreds of years the Japanese samurai used to commit suicide when they did

something shameful that could hurt the reputation of their family. “According to the World Health

Organization, ‘Japan has the highest suicide rate among Asian countries with more than 30,000 Japanese

killing themselves each year’”(Louie). According to the Greeks, the word euthanasia meant “merciful

death”. Besides the many religions and races, there are many philosophers who have debated over suicide

and euthanasia.

According to the pupil of Socrates, Plato in the ​Republic b​ elieves that “patients unable due to

their suffering to live a normal life, should not receive treatment for the prolongation of life. It is evident

that Plato is against active euthanasia but that he accepts passive euthanasia”(​Papadimitriou).
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Just like Plato the father of medicine, Hippocrates also supports the idea of passive euthanasia while still

against active euthanasia. Hippocrates later wrote what is known now as the Hippocratic Oath which

prohibits a doctor from giving a patient any kind of lethal drug. Another philosopher would be Thomas

Hobbes and his dark view on human nature. Thomas Hobbes believed that within a society a government

was a necessity since it served as the “mortal god” that helped kept stability and with this belief it allowed

the government to ban suicide since it would protect society from itself. However, John Stuart Mill

opposed this view since he believed in an individual’s own liberty. He believed that a person is their own

guardian over their own body which justified their choice to end their life if they wanted to. According to

his philosophical work ​On Liberty,​ he stated that no government or society has the right to interfere with a

person liberty just as long as they don’t do anything to harm someone else. His beliefs and principles

made an impact in a way that they are still used in modern day court decisions.

American Law

Many of the philosophers mentioned believing in what is known as natural law which is the

“moral principles regarding as a basis for all human conduct.” Natural law can be seen from way back

even to the ancient Greeks. Within ​Antigone,​ Antigone disobeys Creon by sprinkling a little dirt on her

brother. In ​Antigone​ Creon’s authority/law is something that is “unwritten and unshakeable” which is the

law of the gods. This belief that one’s law/authority is that of Gods led to the belief of natural law which

helps guides our life and helped American theory became what it is now. John Locke connected both

natural laws with natural rights which is something that the government should protect. John Locke has

made an impact on America’s and that can be seen mainly within the Declaration of
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Independence where it states, “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with

certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of

Happiness”(Papadimitriou).

America can be seen as a country that is founded on holding high that fact that they give and

protect individual rights. Throughout history, America has been redefining and protecting new

amendments through rulings of the court. One right that has been looked at is the right of privacy which

can be seen from the refusal of medical treatment. People started to question the moral and right of the

government interfering within private lives.

Court Rulings

The first case to help shape a patient's right to die was with the court case of Karen Quinlan. On

April 14,1975 Karen Quinlan was taken to the hospital after an evening out with friends in which she

consumed a large amount of alcohol and drugs. During her stay in the hospital, she stopped breathing then

went into a coma and needed a respirator to help her breathe. Later Karen’s doctors claimed that she had a

one in a million chance of recovery from her vegetative state and soon her family accepted this fact. Her

family had believed that she had “died” and asked for her respirator to be disconnected, however, her

doctors refused to do so because they felt that it would be unethical and that they would be charged

against with murder.

“Karen’s father decided to take the case to court and in November of 1975, Judge Muir ruled over

that the respirator should not be disconnected. However, the New Jersey Supreme Court overturned this

decision on January 1976 on ’right to die’ grounds”(Hughes). Later on, the court found in the Constitution
that it was implied that a person has a right to privacy which allows for the family of a patient to

disconnect them from support. Even though Karen was still connected to the respirator and

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lived for another nine more years her family never spoke to disconnect her from support again. However,

it did bring up the question of whether terminally ill patients had the right to refuse support such as food

through a feeding tube. This brought up the case of Elizabeth Bouvia.

Elizabeth Bouvia, a 26-year-old woman, was checked into Riverside General Hospital claiming

that she wanted to starve to death. Elizabeth Bouvia suffered from paralyzes from cerebral palsy along

with slight control of one of her hand and part of her facial muscles. Along with paralyzes and slight

control of her body she also suffered from degenerative arthritis. Her doctors decided that they would not

let her starve to death so they went with force-feeding her through feeding tubes. “She has been subjected

to the force intrusion of an artificial mechanism into her body against her will”(Bouvia). Elizabeth was

moved from hospital to hospital and each one refused to act on her request to die. Bouvia lost her case in

court about how “right to privacy did not apply to suicide by starvation.” Later in 1985, Bouvia started to

eat again on her own will, but yet doctors still force-fed her due to her weight being close to starvation.

“Elizabeth apparently has made a conscious and informed choice that she prefers death to continued

existence in her helpless and, to her, intolerable condition” (Bouvia).

In 1986 Elizabeth Bouvia tried to appeal to the court again so that she could starve herself and

according to the Supreme Court case​ Bouvia v. Superior Court​ the court ruled in favor of Elizabeth on the

stand that the right to privacy included her right to end her own life. Another case similar to Elizabeth

Bouvia would be Terri Schiavo case. “Terri Schiavo had been in a vegetative state for eight years when

her husband, Michael, petitioned to have her feeding tube removed in 1998”(Caffery). When her husband
petitioned for her feeding tube to be removed Schiavo’s parents took the husband to court to gain

guardianship. The parents had lost the court case and Schiavo’s feeding tube was removed in October

2003.

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Reasons against Legalization of Euthanasia

There are plenty of reasons a person might consider asking their physician or doctor to perform

euthanasia, but according to the American Medical Association also known as AMA most

physician-assisted suicide doesn’t line up with the actual role/occupation of the physician and the two

main reasons to ask are because of pain or psychological discomfort. The AMA usually stands to teach

physicians the advanced pain management techniques to help battle against those who consider

euthanasia. Which leads to the number one reason why people are against the legalization of euthanasia

which is that people who usually ask for euthanasia aren’t in great pain it is due to the circumstance.

According to AMA the lack of ways to reduce pain helps in the patient’s request for suicide, but also

depression plays a huge role in this as well.

When a patient goes through a terminal illness they fall into this trap of isolation and depression

which separates them from society and puts them into this state of mind that suicide is the only way out.

For a person to help one commit suicide is like robbing them of time that could have been spent doing

something else. One example would be Elizabeth Bouvia as the court ruled in her favor of being able to

disconnect from the support she decided that she wanted to live. During her fight, she had been moved

from hospital to hospital meeting new people and because of this she eventually felt that life was still

worth it and continued to live. Her reasoning shows that when one doesn’t feel connected to others they
have this desire to end their life which shows that most people don’t usually want to die because of their

disease or pain but because they feel disconnected from others.

Loneliness and Depression play a role in a person’s choice of wanting to seek out euthanasia

however one other trait would be someone’s loss of their independence in life. “Larry McAfee, a

quadriplegic who won court permission to turn off his ventilator in 1989. . . was paralyzed in a

motorcycle accident in 1985 and had to use a ventilator to breathe”(Press). Larry McAfee had to live

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off from his health insurance but once he had used everything up he did not want to be a burden on his

family so then he was placed into a nursing home. As time passed and his experience for not being able to

take care of himself McAfee went into a state of depression. He sought out the right to disconnect his

ventilator and won the case in the Georgia courts. Although he won the rights Larry decided not to

disconnect himself instead he was qualified to get “additional benefits under Medicare disability” after he

took the offer he was moved into an independent living group home where he found it okay in terms of

living conditions. This shows that people’s decisions on wanting to die can be easily influenced by their

own life situation and mainly to many it is usually their finances. Another reason besides finances would

be that people feel that they are a burden to their families

Besides the fact, most euthanasia seekers are depressed or have some life situation physicians also

believe that euthanasia creates a ripple effect. Dr. Kevorkian, also known as Dr. Death, is a prime

example of why physicians consider euthanasia as a ripple effect. Dr. Kevorkian was known for

performing euthanasia on over 131 patients illegally. He would connect his patients to “his self-made

machine, which he variously called the ‘Mercitron’ or the ‘Thanatron’”(Schneider) and when the patients

click the switch it would inject a lethal drug. He was “convicted of second-degree murder in the death of

the last of about 130 ailing patients whose lives he had helped end”(Schneider). Many people found what
he did to be sympathetic to the people suffering, however, he did not always follow the “standards” he

had publicly claimed he had. Since he never really spent the time to consult his patients he never really

understood the reason some of them wanted to receive euthanasia. Legalizing euthanasia and

physician-assisted suicide can be seen horribly especially if it is in the hands of those similar to Dr.

Kevorkian.

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Reasons to Legalize Euthanasia

Many who oppose the legalization of euthanasia claim that the roles of doctors and physicians

should be to heal, however in our advanced modern society some of the methods used would not be

considered to be healing. According to the AMA, it claims that a physician’s duties are to sustain life and

relieve suffering, but when either cannot be done then the physician should respect a patient’s wish to end

life-sustaining treatment. When looking at rights we should take a look at a patient’s right to their life and

even further we should take a look at their choice to end it or not. When a patient claims that his or her

life isn’t in good shape then physicians should start to consider that the only way to actually “heal” that

person is to respect their wish to end their life. Since the physician won’t help with the suicide of a patient

what were to happen if the patient tried to do it on their own. They could end up getting worse from what

they started with.

In our modern world, we have advanced so much especially in terms of medicine. We now have

machines such as ventilators and feeding tubes that help preserve and prolong a person’s life. However, to

some, this isn’t actually saving someone it just delays the inevitable which is death. Peter Saul on TED

talk said, “we started using expressions like ‘lifesaving’. I really do apologize to everybody for doing that.
. . prolong people’s lives, and delay death, and redirect death, but we can’t strictly speaking, save lives on

any sort of permanent basis”(Saul). Even with our advancements we still can’t actually save a person’s

life we just delay and some may even suffer more. Larry McAfee would be a prime example of how

prolonging lives isn’t the way some people want to live. Even Elizabeth Bouvia was forced to use a

feeding tube which seems wrong especially how she was being forced to do it against her own will.

Besides the fact that we don’t actually save lives with our advancements there are people who have made

a huge difference in our society like Percy Bridgman.

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Percy Bridgman was a Nobel prize winning physicist who shot himself in the head after being

forced alive by society. Bridgman in 1961 became “crippled in both legs, with increasingly intense pain

and great fatigue. . . intractable cancer of major bones, which would inevitably prove fatal in a matter of

months or a year” (Kemble). Even though Bridgman was suffering from cancer that would have killed

him in a year or less and felt intense pain that grew over time he still was denied by society to help him

put an end to his life. Soon after Bridgman could no longer take it and took his own life and left a note

that read, “It isn’t decent for Society to make a man do this thing himself. Probably this is the last day I

will be able to do it myself.” So after being denied Bridgman didn’t take any time to end his own life on

his own. Even with all that he was still going through society drove him to the point of suicide which

seems worse than a physician giving a lethal dose.

Conclusion

In our modern society we believe that we are saving people’s lives with the advancements we

have in medicine, but in reality, we are just prolonging their lives delaying them from death something
that is awaiting everyone at one point. And because we are able to prolong people’s lives we discard

euthanasia especially because it is against the Hippocratic Oath to never take a life and that it is morally

wrong to help end a life. However, though with the research done in this paper doctors should be allowed

to perform euthanasia on ​specific patients with incurable diseases and immense pain within medical

facilities.
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Works Cited

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Physician-Assisted Suicide and Voluntary Euthanasia.” ​The New England Journal of Medicine.​,
U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1 Feb. 1996.
“Bouvia v. Superior Court (Glenchur) (1986).” ​Justia US Law​, 1986
Caffrey, Cait. "Terri Schiavo case." ​The 2000s in America,​ edited by Craig Belanger, Salem, 2013.
Salem Online​.
Carter, Jack. "U.S. Supreme Court Upholds the Right to Refuse Medical Treatment." ​Great Events from
History: The Twentieth Century, 1971-2000​, edited by Robert F. Gorman, Salem, 2008. ​Salem
Online​.
Frederich, Katherine B. and Tischauser, Leslie V. "Euthanasia." ​Magill's Medical Guide, Seventh
Edition​, edited by Bryan C. Auday, Michael A. Buratovich, Geraldine F. Marrocco and Paul
Moglia, Salem, 2014. ​Salem Online​.
Hughes, Richard. “In Re Quinlan, 355 A.2d 647, 70 N.J. 10 – CourtListener.com.” ​CourtListener​, 31
Mar. 1976.
Kemble, Edwin C, and Francis Birch. “Percy Bridgman.” ​Nasonline​, 1970
Louie, Sam. “Asian Honor and Suicide.” ​Psychology Today,​ Sussex Publishers, 30 June
2014.“Religious Perspectives On Euthanasia.” ​Institute of Catholic Bioethics,​ 14 Mar. 2011.
Papadimitriou, John D, et al. “Euthanasia and Suicide in Antiquity: Viewpoint of the Dramatists and
Philosophers.” ​Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine,​ The Royal Society of Medicine, Jan.
2007.
Press, The Associated. “Larry McAfee, 39; Sought Right to Die.” ​The New York Times​, The New York
Times, 5 Oct. 1995.
Saul, Peter. “‘Let's Talk about Dying.’” ​TED: Ideas Worth Spreading​, Nov. 2011.
Schneider, Keith. “Dr. Jack Kevorkian Dies at 83; A Doctor Who Helped End Lives.”
The New York Times,​ The New York Times, 3 June 2011.