History of Euthanasia - Right to Die

Running head: EUTHANASIA, RIGHT TO DIE
EUTHANASIA, RIGHT TO DIE
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EUTHANASIA, RIGHT TO DIE1
Introduction
To engage to continue living a life which an individual believes intolerable when
there are physicians who are interested either to end one’s life or to assist individual in ending
individuals’ own life. On the other hand, the ones who would reject patients a lawful right to
euthanasia or legal right to die tends to appeal to argument of dangers of abuse (Pierre, 2015).
Contradictory to lone suicide, euthanasia has developed as an umbrella for accepting
practices of ending life.
In support of physician assisted suicide or voluntary active euthanasia, the argument
is typically made as individuals have the right to live with dignity, they also have the right to
die with dignity. It has been noted that proper medications could relieve end-of-life anguish
and expedite death (Richards, 2016). However, intended or unintended euthanasia has been
argued to comprise of contradictory of negating individual liberty of living. The paper will
offer review of literature using scholarly articles on euthanasia.
History of Euthanasia
The notion that death should be humane is not regarded as a new idea. Around 1800,
pioneers of euthanasia had pulled on the legs of the ones who had been hanged in order to
hasten their deaths. The invention and prevalent use of morphine in the 19th century in order
to treat and then to exterminate resulted in the belief that a slightly less painful death process
had been possible (Gandsman, 2016). Moreover, sociological understanding of morality helps
to comprehend reasons to which several activists have deliberately shifted from referring to
the issue as a moral act even if the activism originates from ethical considerations.
The end of 1800s marked the opposition of the American Medical Association
towards voluntary euthanasia. While many health practitioners had relied on the redemptive
nature of suffering, the disapproval and resistance had failed to stop the movement. Zavala
(2015) claimed that the capacity of relieving pain experienced by sufferers as an effect of