The Evolution of Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide Essay

The Evolution of Euthanasia This essay will examine the evolution of the practice of mercy killing in the one country that has promoted it hard for some years. The surprising result of my studies for this essay is the revelation that the Netherlands practice of euthanasia has become so liberalized that it is no longer recognizable as the equivalent program that was originally legislated. Euthanasia in the Netherlands has gone from requiring terminal malady to no physical illness at all, from physical suffering to imprint just, from conscious longanimouss to unconscious, from those who can consent to those who cannot, and from being a measure of go bad resort to one of early intervention. Although respect for patient autonomy is the important ethical argument in favor of euthanasia, power has passed almost solo into doctors hands. Patient autonomy has been subverted by the unprecedented rights given by the philanders to doctors to determine the fate of patients. The public era of euthanasia in the Netherlands began in 1973, 1 when two significant events occurred. A government commission reported that the ban on active euthanasia should remain, and a doctor, after admitting killing her sick grow who wanted to die, was found guilty, and given a suspended sentence. Evidence was tendered that she had only done what was already commonly, though unofficially, done by many doctors. The court announced several conditions which, in its view, would justify the active killing of a patient. In 1981 and 1983, two courts reached similar conclusions. A State Commission on Euthanasia decided in 1982, 2 that a doctor who terminates the life of a patient at the latters expressed and serious desir... ...t of The Remmelink repport and the van der Maas Study in Euthanasia, in Euthanasia, Clinical Practice and the Law. Ed Gormally L. The Linacre Centre 1994. p 219-240. 12. Id. p 230. 13. Pijnenborg L, van der Maas PJ, van Delden JJM, Looman CWN. Life termin ating acts without explicit request of patient. Lancet 1993 341 1196-1199. 14. avant-garde Delden JJM, Pijnenborg L, van der Maas PJ. The Remmelink Report Two Years Later. Hastings Cent Rep 1993 Nov/Dec 24-27. 15. Fenigsen R. The Netherlands virgin Regulations Concerning Euthanasia. Issues Law Med 1993 9 167-171. 16. Id. p 170. 17. van der Wal G, van der Maas PJ, Bosma JM, Onwuteaka-Philipsen BD, Willems DL et al. Evaluation of the Notification Procedure for Physician-Assisted Death in the Netherlands. New Eng J Med. 1996 335 1706-1711. 18. Mark Ludlow. Canberra Times. 17 November 1996.