In Rome, suicide was only punishable if it was irrational. In Roman times, "to live nobly was to die nobly, and irrational actions were not considered noble" (Roberts 4). The ancient philosopher Plato wrote in his book, The Laws, that suicide is only acceptable for people that fit four categories: people who take their lives by legal order, people who are incurably ill, people who are disabled, and people who have disgraced themselves "beyond any hope of self-forgiveness" (5).
There are many different concepts of euthanasia around the world, and each culture handles matters in a different way. Most African cultures accept death more than Western cultures. One African tribe believes that each person has a special destiny to fulfill, and a responsibility to one's self and their community. Those two things make life meaningful, and "when it is not possible to fulfill both components, a person may take his or her own life" (41). In Australia, Euthanasia is illegal except the Northern Territory, .
where physician assisted suicide has been allowed since July 1st, 1996. In Germany, passive euthanasia is accepted in a private manner between a doctor and the patient (42). In Japan, passive euthanasia is accepted, and patients are allowed to reject life prolonging .
Peterson 3.
treatment (43). The people of the Netherlands have accepted Euthanasia since 1973 with certain conditions, and it remains to have the most liberal euthanasia policies in the world (44).
The issue of assisted suicide is always addressed with the substitutes, alternatives, and associations to euthanasia. One of those is a hospice (a health care philosophy and practice that attends to the physical, psychological, and spiritual needs of the dying), which focuses on "alleviating the physical pain of terminal illness" (Williams 17). Sister Loretta, a nun of the Mother Cabrini Order, says that "intimacy and touch are what counts, even if offering that means becoming as exposed and raw as all of us eventually become in the process of dying.
