In short, euthanasia refers to the intentional ending of life in order to end suffering. The topic is highly controversial and its checkered legal status across the world reflects the differences in opinion.
Euthanasia has a long history, having been used in ancient Greek and Roman civilisations. Even in the early days, euthanasia was a hot topic that called upon moral, religious and medical arguments. It is a little known fact that, in January 1936, King George V was given a fatal dose of morphine and cocaine by his physician – Lord Dawson – in order to hasten his death.
In this article, we will discuss what euthanasia is, and some of the arguments for and against.
Euthanasia has many, subtly different, definitions, all of which overlap to a certain degree. The crux of most of them is that a life is ended at their request, in order to end suffering that is likely to be ongoing; a merciful death, if you will.
The Oxford English Dictionary refers to it as:
“The painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease or in an irreversible coma.”
Marvin Khol and Paul Kurtz’s define it as:
“a mode or act of inducing or permitting death painlessly as a relief from suffering.”
Similarly, the House of Lords Select Committee on Medical Ethics, gives precise definition of euthanasia as:
“A deliberate intervention undertaken with the express intention of ending a life, to relieve intractable suffering.”
Baruch A. Brody, an American bioethicist defines euthanasia as:
“An act of euthanasia is one in which one person […] (A) kills another person (B) for the benefit of the second person, who actually does benefit from being killed”
Euthanasia is broken down into different categories. Two commonly used brackets are the following:
Because of the nature of euthanasia, even the definitions above are considered controversial and unhelpful by some. There is a certain blurring between the two, for instance, if a doctor administers increasing quantities of necessary, but eventually lethal opioid pain relief, which category would it fall into?
Euthanasia is further split into three categories:
As the categories above elucidate, euthanasia is a multifaceted issue with no simple, clear answers. A Gallup poll asked Americans the following question:
“When a person has a disease that cannot be cured and is living in severe pain, do you think doctors should or should not be allowed by law to assist the patient to commit suicide if the patient requests it?”
In 2015, 68% of responders thought it should be legal and 28% though it should not. In 2014 the split was 58%/39%, so the mood has substantially changed, but, over the past two decades, the percentage of those who agree with assisted suicide has fluctuated between 52% and 68%, no one has their mind made up.
Although there are many aspects to the euthanasia debate, some of the arguments that appear most commonly fit into the following categories:
In a society where youth and vigor is prized and the elderly are increasingly marginalized, a patient who felt they were becoming a burden to relatives might feel pressurized to be euthanized.
Medscape completed a survey of 10,000 American physicians in 2010. When asked “Would you ever consider halting life-sustaining therapy because the family demands it, even if you believed that it was premature?” 16.3% said they would and 54.5% said they would not.
When they were asked “Should physician-assisted suicide be allowed in some cases?” Almost 46% said it should and nearly 41% said it should not, the rest responded that “it depends.”
A survey of UK doctors asked whether a person with an incurable and painful disease, from which they will die, should be allowed by law to end their life. Roughly one third agreed that they should be allowed to choose, almost two thirds disagreed. They also found that doctors working in palliative care were more likely to be against assisted dying.
Because of the complexity of the euthanasia issue, it comes as no surprise that there are legal differences between countries.
Currently, euthanasia is legal in:
Assisted suicide is legal in:
A review conducted in 2013 investigated euthanasia and assisted suicide in countries where it is currently legal. The following are some of their findings:
