THE RIGHT TO DIE, WHO`S CHOICE IS IT ANYWAY?

The decision to live or die in the context of euthanasia is extremely delicate , complex and controversial . Debates about the ethics of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide were present even in Ancient Greece and Rome . The word euthanasia itself has a Greek etymology meaning "an easy or happy death (from eu- "good thanatos "death " meaning good death (definition taken from Online Etymology Dictionary

Euthanasia is the act of deliberately inflicting death on a person suffering from an incurable disease by making use of lethal drugs or by withholding treatment

There is debate

over the issues of voluntary and involuntary euthanasia or , in Daniel Callahan 's words over killing and allowing to die Active euthanasia was said to result from the desire of the patient who wants to preserve his dignity . Involuntary euthanasia points to the fact that death is provoked without the patient 's consent . Either of the alternatives stated above are , more or less , a form of killing . Daniel Callahan 's work "Killing and Allowing to Die ' suggests a distinction to be made between killing and allowing to die . The distinction is drawn in terms of omission and commission : commission is the cause of the death while omission is not , and it confuses reality and moral judgment to see and omitted action as having the same causal status as one that kills (taken from Callahan D , When Self-Determination Runs Amok . He also argues that a lethal injection will kill both a healthy and a non healthy individual but stopping a machine or terminating treatment will only kill someone who is being kept alive by means of it (Callahan D , When Self-Determination Runs Amok . It has been argued therefore , that active and voluntary euthanasia is when a person explicitly requests help to die and a lethal injection , for example , is given . Involuntary euthanasia , on the other hand , is triggered by actions or omissions directed toward those who themselves are incapable of making a request to die (infants , young children , the mentally retarded , or the comatose for instance ) but whose relatives or physician make the request

Therefore , it appears to be of major importance such concepts like causality and culpability and beneficence and nonmaleficence . About causality and culpability , Callahan argued "Causality (by which I mean the direct physical causes of death ) and culpability (by which I mean our attribution of moral responsibility to human actions ) are confused under these circumstances (taken from Callahan D , retrieved from site HYPERLINK "http /www .tru .ca /ae /php /phil /mclaughl /students /phil433 /callaha1 .htm http /www .tru .ca /ae /php /phil /mclaughl /students /phil433 /callaha1 .htm

The principles of beneficence and nonmaleficence basically mean to help and to do no harm and are an important part of medical ethics . Callahan argues that medicine has taken over too great a responsibility as it is in the position to decide when medical alternative has been tried and proved ineffective therefore , medicine arrogates the role of decision maker for when it is best to end a life . Callahan questions...