The Euthanasia Debate

There are several meanings for the word Euthanasia. There is Passive Euthanasia which is the act of hastening someone’s death by means of altering or stopping some form of medical treatment, life support, CPR, or food and water. Next is Active Euthanasia which requires a specific response from another person at the request of the person who wants to die, such as a lethal injection. Third, there is Physician Assisted Suicide which requires the assistance from one’s physician who gives the information and/or the tools to allow the patient to end his own life. This could be done by giving a prescription to the patient for a lethal dose of sleeping pills but the patient is the one who actually kills themselves. Last, there is Involuntary Euthanasia which is to cause the death of a person who has not requested to die. Usually this is a person who is in a vegetated state that probably will not regain consciousness. Should euthanasia be legalized?

      As usual there are two sides to every issue. Pro-euthanasia groups feel that it is a civil liberty issue. A person who is terminally ill has the Constitutional right to die if he so chooses and that you, I or the government does not have the right to tell him different. Anti-euthanasia groups argue that euthanasia would not be used only for the terminally ill. It could become a way of keeping health care cost down. It would become non-voluntary. The poor and mentally ill would be at risk. They feel that euthanasia rejects the value of life.

      Does someone have the Constitutional right to end their own life? According to the U.S. Supreme Court, “The history of the law's treatment of assisted suicide in this country has been and continues to be one of the rejections of nearly all efforts to permit it. That being the case, our decisions lead us to conclude that the asserted 'right' to assistance in committing suicide is not a fundamental liberty interest protected by the Due Process Clause.”(U.S. Supreme Court...