The Right To Die With Dignity

p The Right to Die with Dignity

The right to die ' is a that stirs debate . Some people hold the sanctity of life , hence , condemn the immorality of the principle of the right to die ' Others , on the other hand , emphasizes a person 's independent decision whether to continue living or not in cases wherein the person suffers from a terminal illness . Both has their own merits neither of which is incorrect . While no one seems to argue about the right to live , a person 's right to die ' is a subject with

much controversy . Proponents of the right to die ' add that life is not the only important thing that matters , but things such as honor and dignity are also of relevance . It will be the purpose of this to look on the arguments of opposing sides regarding the right to die with dignity and determine how the society and government are reacting to such issues . We will look on the issues of suicide , assisted suicide and euthanasia and relate them to their merits with the right to die with dignity

Section B

Philosophers have contemplated the concept of acceptable death since ancient times . In ancient Rome , enemies of Caesar would rather die by their own swords than to be captured by the enemy . In medieval Japan the ritual suicide is a widely accepted practice , at least among the samurai . It is a samurai 's way of regaining lost honor or , like the soldiers in ancient Rome , avoid them from being captured by the enemy alive . These and similar practices allow individuals to die with dignity . A survey of suicides in the ancient world concludes that suicide is not understood as a negative phenomenon in the first century CE (Reed . The right to die , however , is a recent development , only emerging in the 70 's . Interestingly , the concept of suicide has also evolved in modern era , the term itself was introduced only in a work by Sir Thomas Brown , the Religio Medici , written in 1635 (Reed , 2005 . The terms self-murder , self-killing ' or self-slaughter ' was used before the term suicide was introduced . The difference then and now rests on the individuals who intentionally commit self-murder . While before it was an act to save or regain honor , now it is an act to end suffering from physical pain

Nowadays , there are two socially persistent ways in which a person with a terminal illness can practice its right to die with dignity : that of euthanasia and assisted suicide . Euthanasia is the practice of mercifully administering death (active euthanasia ) or the lack of medical action to preserve life (inactive euthanasia ) especially to persons with incurable disease who are suffering a great deal of pain also due to the disease . On the other hand , assisted suicide , as the term implies , is the practice of a person to voluntarily and intentionally end the person 's own life with the aid of another person usually a physician

The right to die ' is the freedom to...