Euthanasia: Ethical Issues and Principles in End-of-Life Care

Running head: EUTHANASIA 1
EUTHANASIA
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EUTHANASIA 2
Euthanasia
Giving good care for dying individuals requires that the health experts have known about
ethical issues pertinent to end-of-life care. Patient autonomy can be assured by effective advance
planning at the end of life when the victim has lost the capacity to make a decision (Shah, 2018).
Health experts caring for terminally sick patients receive requests for medic-assisted suicide. The
practitioner must establish the basis for the request and work with the health care personnel to
give support and comfort the patient. Medics need to incorporate spiritual situations into the
management of patients at the end of life (Shah, 2018). Euthanasia refers to the killing of a
person for the sake of mercy to relieve great suffering. Health practitioners must be convinced
that request is voluntary, well considered and the victim has unremitting pain (Keown, 2018).
There are many forms euthanasia that includes passive euthanasia, active euthanasia,
voluntary and non-voluntary euthanasia. Passive euthanasia refers to authorizing the individual
to die by withholding treatment or by discontinuing such treatment once begun. Active
euthanasia is taking a positive step to end life like the administering a toxic substance or the
injection of an air bubble into the bloodstream (Shah, 2018). There are at least two experiences
where cessation is not the same as euthanasia: the refusal of treatment right and when continued
treatment brings more discomfort and has minimal chance of survival. The non-voluntary
euthanasia is ethically controversial and involuntary euthanasia happens when an individual
might well be able to provide informed consent, however, they might be unable to give consent if
asked and in those situations terminating a life through the actions of others happens (Shah,
2018).
Doctors are constrained directly or indirectly by the laws in the sphere of politics in the
treatment and care of individuals who might be near to terminate their lives. There is a key

EUTHANASIA 3
current problem concerns the availability and the success of palliative medicine and palliative
care in the social policy (Keown, 2018). Withholding or withdrawing of ineffective medication
is permissible even if it shortens life foreseeably. Moreover, a good medical treatment at the life
termination that motivates practice and that kind of medication is oriented to make sure that the
individual dies with dignity and in comfort. As much as the benefits of medication must
outweigh the disadvantages, this kind of treatment should not involve termination of the patients
deliberately(Shah, 2018).
For instance, there was a 66-year-old female victim who was a divorcee and a mother of
one daughter. The victim lives with her 21-year-old daughter. She was a mathematics teacher
and he was healthy and actively involved in various activities until five months ago when she
started complaining about generalized pain and loss of weight, multiple seizure episodes and
severe headache. She as then diagnosed with metastasis brain tumor stage IV. She got two cycles
of chemotherapy and she refused to receive radiotherapy. She later developed hypoxic damage to
her brain cells that left her paralyzed and blind. Furthermore, she lied in her bed and depressed,
she had no contact in the outside world. Her daughter feeds her religiously and sincerely. She
then asked her daughter to die in peace and signed an agreement consent form with the witness
of her daughter because she was suffering from an intolerant pain. Her doctor gave her a high
dose of morphine and ended her life immediately.
The cases raise an ethical issue since it's a controversial subject involving life and death
decision. According to Sahni & Jain, Euthanasia implies that's most individuals that are
incurably sick will not choose to end their own life or ask for assistance from other people to
activate their death. For this reason, they may suffer pain physically from a long health decline
which is stressful both for the woman and the daughter. Therefore if the woman could not access