Euthanasia is the painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease or in an irreversible coma. Euthanasia can either take the form of passive or active assisted-suicide. Euthanasia is a hotly debated topic international that receives a lot of media attention when a story breaks about a personal story of someone suffering from an incurable and painful disease asks to be euthanized.
Euthanasia can either take a passive or active form in that passive euthanasia is the act in which a life-support system or medication is withheld so the patient can die by natural means. This also means an ordinary human right such as nutrition or hydration cannot be with held to ...view middle of the document...
Sue Rodriguez is another case of a person living in unbearable pain and knowing she would die, she was a mother in her she knew she was going to die a slow and excruciating death from Lou Gehrig’s disease. After she was diagnosed with the disease she fully acknowledged the fact that over time her muscles waste away, weakening her to but a shell of the woman she once was and finally one fateful day she would be fully conscious and choke to death. She pleaded with the courts to allow her doctor to stop her pain and let her choose to die with dignity, but the courts refused.
Euthanasia can stop the suffering of the person with the illness and the family who are trying to prepare them selves for the fact that their family member will die an excruciating death that could have been avoided. It can also stop the heartbreak families go through when they lose some one and don’t get to say good-bye because the live internationally and don’t know when their condition might deteriorate.
The laws in Australia that stop physician-assisted suicide are that of section 19A of the Crimes Act 1900 by which announces that “A person found guilty of aiding or abetting the suicide of another person would be liable to a penalty of 10 years imprisonment”. Another law affecting assisted suicide is that of Section 31C of the Crimes Act 1900 (2) “Where: (a) a person incites or counsels another person to commit suicide, and (b) that other person commits, or attempts to commit, suicide as a consequence of that incitement or counsel, the first mentioned person shall be liable to imprisonment for 5 years.” This law stop physicians from even telling the patient that suicide is a viable option.
One of the other documents that also stops physicians from assisting in suicide is that...
