What is Euthanasia?

Euthanasia is the intentional killing by act or omission of a dependent human being for his or her alleged benefit.

What does it mean to be incapacitated?

To be deprived of ability, qualification, or strength; made incapable or unfit; disabled.

Why is this a big deal?

There are many widely disputed and highly publicized cases of euthanasia. Many cases include relatives who chose to end a patient's life since they would be in such incredible pain. Other cases include patients put into a vegetative state or a coma that they may never recover from in which case relatives once again chose to end the patient's life. Due to these odd circumstances, the patients themselves do not have a say in what is done to them causing a great deal of confusion. Another source of confusion would be if the patient was very young and perhaps not mature enough to make a decision regarding their own death.

The main focus for relatives and caregivers would be to put an end to unnecessary pain or put an end to a patient's life if they are in an irrecoverable state. In most places this is illegal, not because the government mandates suffering but to prevent abuse and protect patients against.

Does this mean suffering patients must be forced to stay alive?

Unfortunately, due to these laws set to protect patients, it means relatives and caregivers may not attempt to end a patient's life even if they are certain it is what the patient would have wanted.

There is however no law requiring that the patient must take treatment to extend their lives, so going onto pain relieving treatment but staying off life saving treatment would be an alternative.

What's the difference between euthanasia and assisted suicide?

The only difference is in who performs the final act leading to death.

If someone were to give an incapacitated patient a lethal injection for example, it would be euthanasia.

On the other hand, if someone provided the patient with an overdose of drugs and the ill patient took them on their own power and died it would be considered assisted suicide. Doctors are also permitted to provide patients with information on how to commit suicide themselves.

How can we reduce confusion?

Most of the confusion and uncertainty comes from not knowing what the patient would want in certain situations and not being able to find out if they were incapacitated. To help relatives and caregivers know in advance what they would want if incapacitated with no reasonable chance of recovery people can make what is called an advance directive. An advance directive can be either a living will or a health care proxy.

A Living Will is a legal document in which you state the kind of health care you want or don't want under certain circumstances.

A Health Care Proxy (or durable health care power of attorney) is a legal document in which you name someone close to you to make decisions about your health care in the event you become incapacitated.

It is not necessary to have one, but in the even that you are not able to communicate, you will lose say in what treatment will be given to you.

A few other things to consider

There are existing treatments which can more or less eliminate all of a patient's pain, so they would not necessarily have to endure a great deal of suffering despite being terminally or irrecoverably ill.

Euthanasia is largely a debate surrounding the law and the controversy has very little to do with religious beliefs.

Even euthanasia and assisted suicide take place anyways it would be unwise to legalize them like suicide. Some believe this would ensure that the patient dies among family in a peaceful way and done so through carefully monitored guidelines. In many cases, this would simply make the patient vulnerable to abuse. Also, where euthanasia is legalized, it is not always practiced under proper guidelines or reported accurately.

Another issue is the money that would be saved since drugs for assisted suicide cost very little in comparison to the cost of life extending and pain alleviating treatment. Thus legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide would be a means of health care cost containment.

Sources

http://www.nrlc.org/euthanasia/index.html

http://www.euthanasia.cc/cases.html

http://www.internationaltaskforce.org/faq.htm