Euthenasia, Is It Morally Acceptable To Choose Death?

Euthanasia is a buzz word and certainly evokes moral and ethical thoughtfulness from most people. However euthanasia itself is a big word. Taking the word into certain contexts brings the meaning home and makes it much more clear. At that point people are more comfortable expressing moral judgment on the euthanasia issue. From the big picture, however, euthanasia is morally wrong and not ethically sound.

Dr. Jack Kevorkian brought euthanasia into living rooms across the United States as he assisted his patience with suicide and earned the name Dr. Death. Gloria Borger authored an article in the September 3, 1990 issue of U.S. News and World Report entitled “The Odd Odyssey of Dr. Death.” This article posed the question is Dr. Kevorkian a “murder or humanitarian” just trying to help people? For Dr. Kevorkian euthanasia has been a living trip through the legal system. The Journal of Palliative Care, in a 1993 article by Dr. Ira R. Byock (an M.D.), provided the view from Hospice beginning with the title “Consciously Walking the Fine Line: Thoughts on a Hospice Response to Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia.” One key is raising the consciousness of the p

People must decide for themselves what is morally right. Books can be written, as Jeff McMahon did with The Ethics of Killing: Problems and the Margins of Life. But opinions are best reached in specific contexts. Richard J. Devine, C.M., is a Vincentian priest with a mission to serve the people. He does this in his role as a professor of medical ethics at St. John’s University in New York City. He has worked a great deal with aids patients and their families. He concludes it simply depends. His book is titled Good Care, Painful Choices: Medical Ethics for Ordinary People. Devine concludes it is logic and informed consent that should direct the process of euthanasia. We see euthanasia in abortion, the care of handicapped newborns, and aids treatment. What is a person to do? It is the free will that makes a person choose what to do. What is morally right and ethically sound? It simply depends on the circumstances.

Setting the stage with these two ends of care, the medical profession is, it seems, in a quandary. Health care professionals are part of our system in the United States. Amazingly Raphael Cohen-Almagor presents pro-euthanasia conclusions in his book The Right to Die with Dignity: an Argument in Ethics, Medicine, and Law. Physician assisted suicide is coined by the author with the acronym PAS. Written after the legalization of PAS in the state of Oregon, the author of this book on dying with dignity concludes with remarks that haste makes waste, the patient and not the doctor should suggest PAS, and that all should be on guard for over zealousness. People can change their minds, particularly the patient. Death should have dignity and the patient should be in charge, knowing all the facts but having a choice.

What is the role of the government in euthanasia? The state of Oregon concluded it could facilitate PAS by legalizing it. A team of doctors issued a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (9 May 2001) entitled “Oregon Physicians’ Attitudes About and Experiences With End-Of-Life Care Since Passage of the Oregon Death With Dignity Act”. The doctors, all M.D.s, as part of this team report, concluded all was well. The biggest issue was knowledge and knowing the options. The New York State Task Force on Life and the Law included a very interesting chapter within their pages on the www.health.state.ny.us web site. Chapter

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