Should euthanasia be legalised?

        The definition of euthanasia is a 'good easy death.' The word derives from the Greek word meaning 'dying well'. It means to end a person's life without pain, especially when the person is suffering an incurable painful illness. Euthanasia is illegal in this country. However, many individuals and groups like the Voluntary Euthanasia Society lobby parliament are trying to make it legal.

There are two forms of euthanasia, voluntary euthanasia and involuntary euthanasia.

Voluntary euthanasia is when the person themselves asks to die, and involuntary euthanasia is when other people decide when a person's life is going to end.

In this essay I aim to construct an argument, debating whether or not euthanasia should become legal. I will fulfil my task, showing examples of why euthanasia should be either legal or illegal, with the aid of illustrations such as graphs and statistics. By doing this I hope that anyone who may read it will understand just how serious euthanasia really is.

Euthanasia does take place and is selected voluntarily by patients who are in great pain due to an incurable illness like cancer. Usually the decision is made to pull the plugs of machines which prolong life or to end treatment, because patients select to die, their deaths end suffering, and there is no intention to cause harm, so physician assisted euthanasia cannot be considered murder.

Murder can be defined as an act of violence, which is perpetrated against a victim. For example a man stuffed into a car after being shot five times is a murder victim. The individual dies at a time, which is forced by the killer, who has intent to harm him or her.

Unlike murder, euthanasia is not an act of violence, and so cannot be considered as a murderous activity.

        In physician assisted suicide (PAS), 54% of medical practitioners are in favour of changed laws to allow PAS in some circumstances, with only 36% of respondents opposing. 55% of those asked felt it should be permissible if the person had a terminal condition or was in a state of extreme mental or physical suffering, according to the Glasgow PAS report.                                

Surveys of public opinion are notoriously fickle, but consistent. Although the precise numbers have varied somewhat, nation-wide polls have been unanimous in showing a majority to be in favour of legalised voluntary euthanasia, with highly respected sources showing support as high as 82%, from the British Social Attitudes 

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report. This report is mirrored across the globe. 64% of American's believe that a doctor should be allowed to end the life of a patient who has a painful and terminal disease if they wish to die, from the Roper Poll. In Australia, the figure is even higher, with 78% backing the doctor's right to end the patients life, from the Roy Morgan Research Centre Poll.

The elderly are more in support of voluntary euthanasia, the first ever poll aimed at pensioners found that 92% of those surveyed said that doctor's should be allowed to end the life of ...

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