Euthanasia is the practice of assisting the terminally ill in suicide to end their pain and suffering earlier than the illness would do on its own. Medical facilities practice two methods of euthanasia, passive, and voluntary active euthanasia. The practice of euthanasia is a widespread and highly controversial subject centering on the ethics of who should be allowed to control life and death situations.
Passive euthanasia occurs when the medical staff remove respirators or other life sustaining equipment that allows a patient to die naturally but faster than they would have if left on the equipment. In voluntary active euthanasia, caregivers or medical staff administers a lethal dose of pain medication to end the patient's life sooner. .
No one knows how wide spread this practice is, however, in a survey of nurses working in intensive care units 20 % had deliberately attempted to cease a patient's life atleast once.
Euthanasia is a highly controversial subject because it centers on who has the right to say when a life should end. Is it the terminally ill persons right to end his own life or does that right belong to a family member, doctor, or the government. In America, people assume that they have the right to bring children into the world, so why do they not have the right to end life too. .
However, the other side argues that euthanasia is morally wrong. They say that ending someone's life prematurely is murder even if that person wants to die. Others say that doctors never know for sure how long the person will live. Some people have lived many years past what the doctor had guessed. It has also been found that some patients who beg to die sooner were just in a depression, and when treated for the depression had changed their minds about wanting to die sooner.
People are dying of some terminal disease everyday. Inasmuch, people will look for a way to die quickly without having to go through the terrible stages of pain and suffering.