Euthanasia: A Comparative Analysis of Global Laws and Practices

This essay examines the multifaceted issue of euthanasia in the global context, highlighting its legal and ethical complexities. The essay begins by defining euthanasia and differentiating it from assisted suicide, emphasizing its sensitive nature and varying legal stances across different regions. It then provides a comparative analysis of euthanasia practices in Australia, the Netherlands, the USA, Belgium, and Switzerland, detailing the specific laws and guidelines in each jurisdiction. Furthermore, the essay delves into the Catholic social teaching's perspective on euthanasia, emphasizing the sanctity of life and the moral implications of ending one's life. It concludes by proposing strategies to address the challenges associated with euthanasia, including networking with supportive organizations, conducting research, implementing strict laws, providing counseling, and fostering family support, ultimately advocating for better palliative care options to improve the well-being of individuals and uphold societal values. The essay uses multiple references to support the arguments and provide a comprehensive overview of the topic.

Running head: CHANGE IN GLOBAL WORLD
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The practice of euthanasia is a leading global problem in the present world. This is
sometimes termed as ‘assisted suicide’. This is the act of purposely helping any individual or
encourages and motivates them to end up their life in order to overcome the stress and the
burden they are going through and to overcome the embarrassment they face. This is a
practice that is not legal and the practice of it is not encouraged.
On the contrary it can be argued by Gamondi et al. (2014), that euthanasia differs
from the concept of ‘assisted suicide’. This has become a global issue now. This is a highly
sensitive issue and the laws and the policy related to this vary in different regions across the
globe. According to Emanuel et al. (2016), the act of ‘assisted suicide’ is the act of instigating
a person to commit suicide in order to release all the pains of the person. On the other hand
Kouwenhoven et al. (2013), argues that euthanasia is the act where a person deliberately ends
up the life of another person on the request of that person. This is done to make the person
relief from all the pains and sufferings. It has been witnessed throughout the world and it is
illegal in all the sections of the world. Efforts should be made to eradicate this practice for
ever in all the parts of the world to achieve the common good of the people.
It has been reported in many parts of the world. The impact of these is different in
different parts of the world:
Australia:
In the northern territory in Australia this was first observed. This was reportedly the
first place to legalize euthanasia under the Rights of the Terminally Act. A total of four
people were euthanized before it was replaced by the Senate in Australia 1997 (Gamondi et
al., 2014).
The Netherlands:

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The act was made legalized in the year 2002 in this region. Some narrow guidelines
were set for the doctors to follow regarding the practice of euthanasia. It was set in such a
way that the students would have no hope for improvement and they would request
themselves for euthanasia (Dan, Fonteyne, de Cléty, 2014).
USA:
The region made physical assisted legal but not euthanasia. The act requires that the
Oregon Health Division is aware of these happenings in order to be published in an annual
report. The report showed that there were some amount of people who were received
prescription for the lethal medication that year (Gamondi et al., 2014).
Belgium:
In Belgium the act of euthanasia was made legalized. It was designed in such a way
that two doctors would be involved in it and the method of death would be mutually decided
by both the parties (May, 2017).
Switzerland:
In Switzerland the act of assisted suicide is legal but the act of euthanasia is illegal.
The organization named, EXIT who assists the patients to die and to fulfill their right to die
has stated that the individuals must fulfill certain criteria like he or she must be over 18 years
old, he or she must be a resident of Swiss, they must be mentally competent and must be
suffering from mentally competent and most importantly they must be suffering from
intolerable health problems (Pool, 2014).
According to the Catholic social teaching this process is not a justified one. The
teachings of the Catholic strictly follows the Bible and in Bible it has been mentioned that
every person must take good care of himself or herself as they are the gifts of God. Therefore

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every person must preserve oneself as they are valuable. The Catholic teaching opines for the
fact that dying by practicing euthanasia is not an act of honor. Rather it is an act of disgrace.
The Catholic teaching considers every human being as the blessing of God and it is a sin to
end up life voluntarily. The person ending up his or her life in such manner will be never be
forgiven for his sin. Suicide is an act of sin. The teaching is headed towards the attainment of
the good of all living in the society.
There are few ways to address these challenges. The ways of rectifying the challenges
should be followed in order to eradicate this evil practice from the society in order to save
every individual from this illegal practice. The first and foremost way is to make the
networking with supportive organizations and individuals (Vaughn, 2015). The Euthanasia
would establish the Prevention Coalition that would establish the relationships with the
organizations that adhere to the principles. This would seek and identify certain organizations
that would support the prevention of this act and would invite them (Somerville, 2014).
The need for this should be recognized in the first hand. The research should include
the target groups that practice this cat and the reasons for practicing this. The research should
also include the public opinion polls, the identification and the sharing of the information
with the supportive organizations, the recognition of the successful hospice and the service
model (Steck et al., 2013).
There should be strict laws regarding the abolition of this practice. The laws and the
policies should be practiced religiously. In many cases it has been observed that the laws are
formulated but they are not practiced or even encouraged to practice. This should be taken
into account and the progress of the same should be checked. Corruption is the main cause
behind the practice of this. The doctors and the health sectors are found to offer bribes to the

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legal body or the legal coordinators. The corruption should be avoided on highest priority.
This can be done by forming strict legal system (Thienpont et al., 2015).
There should be some sessions that should be conducted with the patients who want to
commit the act of euthanasia. The patients should be motivated to live in the counseling
sessions. They should be taught to live and they should be given a meaning of life. They
should be taught that ending the life is never a right decision. The license of such doctors who
are practicing such acts should be cancelled. This would bring an effective change. The
support of the family should be of prior importance. The family members should support the
patients. The family support would compel the patients to take back their decision of ending
up their life in such a manner. The pain and the relief of the patients would decrease if they
adequate amount of support from their family members (Vaughn, 2015).
Therefore from the above discussion this can be concluded that the act of euthanasia
is illegal in any form. The act of killing others is illegal and it can be referred to as the illegal
act. Hence, the doctors who are supposed to save the lives of others should not take the life of
their patients. This is not an appropriate way of dealing the sufferings of the patients. The
profession of the doctors is considered to be the noble profession of saving the lives of others.
They should think about the god of the entire society. They are not supposed to consider their
ethics first and then the other things. This would add up to the traumatic experience of being
a doctor. Legalizing the practice of euthanasia would force the doctor to go against the
common good of the society. Therefore it can be stated that the government should provide
better palliative care where the suffering would end rather than the ending the lives of the
patients. This would help in the attainment of the common good of the people living in the
society.

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References
Brody, B. A. (Ed.). (2013). Suicide and euthanasia: historical and contemporary themes (Vol.
35). Springer Science & Business Media.
Dan, B., Fonteyne, C., & de Cléty, S. C. (2014). Self-requested euthanasia for children in
Belgium. The Lancet, 383(9918), 671-672.
Emanuel, E. J., Onwuteaka-Philipsen, B. D., Urwin, J. W., & Cohen, J. (2016). Attitudes and
practices of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide in the United States, Canada,
and Europe. Jama, 316(1), 79-90.
Gamondi, C., Borasio, G. D., Limoni, C., Preston, N., & Payne, S. (2014). Legalisation of
assisted suicide: a safeguard to euthanasia?. The Lancet, 384(9938), 127.
Kouwenhoven, P. S., Raijmakers, N. J., van Delden, J. J., Rietjens, J. A., Schermer, M. H.,
van Thiel, G. J., ... & Weyers, H. (2013). Opinions of health care professionals and
the public after eight years of euthanasia legislation in the Netherlands: a mixed
methods approach. Palliative medicine, 27(3), 273-280.
May, L. (Ed.). (2017). Applied ethics: A multicultural approach. Routledge.
Pool, R. (2014). Negotiating a good death: Euthanasia in the Netherlands. Routledge.
Somerville, M. (2014). Death talk: the case against euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.
McGill-Queen's Press-MQUP.
Steck, N., Egger, M., Maessen, M., Reisch, T., & Zwahlen, M. (2013). Euthanasia and
assisted suicide in selected European countries and US states: systematic literature
review. Medical care, 51(10), 938-944.

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Thienpont, L., Verhofstadt, M., Van Loon, T., Distelmans, W., Audenaert, K., & De Deyn, P.
P. (2015). Euthanasia requests, procedures and outcomes for 100 Belgian patients
suffering from psychiatric disorders: a retrospective, descriptive study. BMJ open,
5(7), e007454.
Vaughn, L. (2015). Doing ethics: Moral reasoning and contemporary issues. WW Norton &
Company.