Currently euthanasia is a topic of much discussion in various parts of the country with physician assisted-death being legal in Oregon, Washington, Montana and Vermont (Leming & Dickinson, 2011). The most recent state to legalize physician-assisted suicide, in 2016, is California (Emanuel, Onwuteaka-Philipsen, Urwin, & Cohen, 2016; Sade, 2016). Internationally euthanasia is legal in many countries around the world such as, Belgium, Canada, The Netherlands, Switzerland, and Colombia (Dyer, White & Rada, 2015; Lorincz, 2015; Leming & Dickinson, 2011).
Outlining Euthanasia
The word euthanasia is derived from the Greek word eu, meaning “good” and thanatos describing “death”. However, when the word was added to the English medical encyclopedia the
meaning transformed slightly to the understanding known today. Michael Manning (1998) argued that euthanasia’s definition of mercy killing overrides the word’s original meaning by society, by deliberately ending an individual’s life that has lived with anxiety and suffering (Leming & Dickinson, …show more content…
The individual consents to dying or permission to a doctor directly administering life ending drug. An example could be physician assisted suicide at the request of a patient dying of cancer (Dyer, White & Rada, 2015; Lorincz, 2015; Leming & Dickinson, 2011).
Involuntary euthanasia Involuntary euthanasia is usually described as the killing without consent. Often, it is used with individuals that are in a permanently unconscious-vegetative state. An example of this was depicted by the well publicized Terri Schiavo case, when where involuntary euthanasia may be put in practice as an empathy killing to those that are dying but have not given their consent to
die. This type of killing is count as a merciful act to the person who dies (Davis, 2015; Dowbiggin, 2013; Leming & Dickinson,