Should Euthanasia Be Illegal?

By: Jasmine Saleh

Euthanasia is defined as the act of killing for reasons of mercy. The government, physicians, and people across the United States and other countries have been debating the issue of legalizing euthanasia for years. Euthanasia should be banned and illegal in America and other nations.

        Euthanasia came to the public’s attention in the western countries in 1870’s. During 1920 in Germany, euthanasia began, and from 1921-1923, wounded German veterans were the first people to be put to death by euthanasia. After 1923, the practice was extended to other people who were handicapped and mentally retarded (Sloan, NP). In 1937, the Euthanasia Society of America was founded in New York City.

When people refer to euthanasia, they may be discussing passive euthanasia, active euthanasia, or assisted suicide. Passive euthanasia occurs when medical treatment to prolong a terminally ill patient is discontinued and the patient is allowed to die. In active euthanasia, a physician or a family member takes a patient’s life before he or she dies of a terminal illness or injury. Assisted suicide occurs when someone does a person’s request for help in dying. Euthanasia is the practice of painlessly ending the lives of people who have incurable, painful, ore distressing diseases or handicaps (Bender, 12). People define euthanasia as “the act of practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly illness person or injured individuals in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy” (Bender, 12). Some people believe that patients have a right to die, in opposition, the other people consider all three types of euthanasia to be murder, suicide, and immoral.

The first bill to legalize euthanasia in the United States was introduced in the Ohio Legislature in 1906. In 1937, the Nebraska Legislature voted down a bill legalizing active euthanasia in the United States. In 1939, the New York Legislature rejected a bill about legalizing euthanasia in the United States. From about 1947 to the late 1960’s, and early 1970’s, euthanasia was illegal in the United States and Western Europe. The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in 1976 that doctors may disconnect a respirator that kept a patient alive.  In 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that people who wish to die have the right to have their life-supporting treatment disconnected and established living wills for them. In January 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments over the issue of doctor-assisted suicide and ruled that the Constitution does not guarantee the right of the terminally ill patient to doctor-assisted suicide in June 1997 (Berger, 121).

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 The case of Karen Quinlan is the most famous because it was the first case to bring the issue of euthanasia to public attention. The case of Quinlan includes passive euthanasia, active euthanasia, and assisted suicide. In 1975, Quinlan got into an irreversible coma after drinking alcohol and using tranquiller at a party, and her parents asked that she must be removed from a respirator. In 1976, the New Jersey Supreme Court agreed and allowed them to have a respirator disconnected. Although Quinlan breathed on her own and lived for another nine years after being removed from a respirator, her ...

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