“ Cruelty and despair can be suffered not only at the hand of man, but at the hand of nature in circumstances of illness, particularly terminal illness. “

Why does society find killing wrong, or for some if not always wrong, then only can it be justified in special circumstances, say in a war or in self defence. Why can killing not be justified in the case of compassion, in the case of a mercy-killing like euthanasia.

My project is investigating euthanasia, the bringing about of a gentle and easy death. The word which was derived from the combination of Greek words, ‘Eu’ and ‘Thanatos’ means good death.

I am looking in particular at the moral, medical and religious views, and how they compare and contrast with one another. Since there are many varied views on the subject of euthanasia, I will unfortunately not be able to cover them all in this project.

The question I will be trying to answer is, ‘ Is killing always worse than letting die.’

My project will be covering the topics of moral views, medical views, religious views, views of different organisations, and the publics view.

“ Thou shall not kill but needst not strive, officiously, to keep alive.” Arthur Hugh Clough [ 1819-1861 ].

Is Active Euthanasia Morally Better?

Switching off a respirator requires someone to carry out the action of throwing out the switch. If the person dies as a result of the doctor switching off the respirator then although it’s certainly true that the person dies from their illness, it’s also true that the immediate cause of their death is the switching off of the machine keeping them alive.

The Roman Catholic churches view of this case study would be mixed, with some following the belief of the British Humanist Society, while others would follow the beliefs of the Pro-Life Alliance.

The Pro-Life Alliance would however believe that it is wrong to stop the medication which would ultimately kill him. They would say that while, granted, all the pain that the patient is suffering cannot be alleviated, there are other options to be considered. A high dose of pain killers could be given instead, although this would hasten death it would be more acceptable than killing him. They think death should be a last resort and not even considered an option until all other means of relief have been considered.

Some topics in this essay:
Pro-Life Alliance, Letting Die, Medical Journal, Roman Catholic, Real Difference, Die Introduction, Humanist Society, Catholic Church, Euthanasia Morally, killing worse, worse letting, killing worse letting, letting die’, worse letting die’, letting die, passive euthanasia, active euthanasia, ‘is killing worse, roman catholic, deliberate act, ‘is killing, lethal injection, British Humanist, british humanist society, worse letting die,