Euthanasia
Euthanasia is arranging for a person who is dying from an agonizing incurable disease to die as quickly and as painlessly as possible. We are all afraid of a long and lingering death with all the pain that that may include. We would all like to die peacefully in our sleep from old age. However this does not always happen and we must face up to the fact that we, or one of our family may be in the position of facing a painful death. Some people think that we should have the right to make our own choices about when we die, and we should be able to die with dignity.
It is illegal in the UK for a doctor to deliberately give a patient a dose of medicine that will kill them. They must be careful that they control the pain without killing the patient. There has been much debate recently about this (Doctor Death), and some countries have made it legal for a person to ask to be "killed" by their doctor (Holland and Australia). The voluntary Euthanasia society was formed in 1935 to campaign for a person's right to seek an "easy" death. In 1985 a poll showed that 72% of the population agreed that a person should have the right to ask for their own death.
Euthanasia is arranging for a person who is dying from an agonizing incurable disease to die as quickly and as painlessly as possible. We are all afraid of a long and lingering death with all the pain that that may include. We would all like to die peacefully in our sleep from old age. However this does not always happen and we must face up to the fact that we, or one of our family may be in the position of facing a painful death. Some people think that we should have the right to make our own choices about when we die, and we should be able to die with dignity.
It is illegal in the UK for a doctor to deliberately give a patient a dose of medicine that will kill them. They must be careful that they control the pain without killing the patient. There has been much debate recently about this (Doctor Death), and some countries have made it legal for a person to ask to be "killed" by their doctor (Holland and Australia). The voluntary Euthanasia society was formed in 1935 to campaign for a person's right to seek an "easy" death. In 1985 a poll showed that 72% of the population agreed that a person should have the right to ask for their own death.
