Thread: Euthanasia

Euthanasia: the intentional killing by act or omission of a dependent human being for his or her alleged benefit. (The key word here is "intentional". If death is not intended, it is not an act of euthanasia)

Voluntary euthanasia: When the person who is killed has requested to be killed.

Non-voluntary: When the person who is killed made no request and gave no consent.

Involuntary euthanasia: When the person who is killed made an expressed wish to the contrary.

Assisted suicide: Someone provides an individual with the information, guidance, and means to take his or her own life with the intention that they will be used for this purpose. When it is a doctor who helps another person to kill themselves it is called "physician assisted suicide."

Euthanasia By Action: Intentionally causing a person's death by performing an action such as by giving a lethal injection.

Euthanasia By Omission: Intentionally causing death by not providing necessary and ordinary (usual and customary) care or food.


Kindly give ur views on euthanasia as docs or ur personal opinion. This topic has stirred up a debate n alwys will. As doctors r v supposed to kill people or what r v to do if situation is completely hopeless and death is imminent. should v be optimistic to the core or should we be realistic n is there any such thing as "dying with dignity"? Express ur views no matter how or what they are. Everyone is entitled to their opinion here no mattr how stupid it may seem.

I'm not fond of the idea to give euthanasia, but it seems cruel and inconsistent to say to an elderly patient: "You can stop drinking and sign an advance directive demanding no treatment for dehydration and we won't put a drip in and die in a week" as the alternative. Going to leave it at that at the moment.

Witholding customary care (like food) doesn't sound right. If the person's going to go, regardless of giving ordinary care, then so be it. But to intentionally cause someone's demise by not feeding him - when it's well within your capacity to do so - doesnt sound right. That's my personal opinion. We live by the dictum - do no harm and euthanasia goes against this...Withholding extraordinary means of medical treatment - like mechanical ventilation - is another story....

Law here dictates you are assaulting a patient if they are deemed capable to make give informed consent but withholds it. This covers everything from taking their blood pressure to de-fib.

So although you can put the fluid in front of them, they can refuse to drink it and request to not have a drip put in when no other treatment would save them. Even a simple saline drip is a treatment and you aren't allowed to treat those who don't want it, basic idea derived from the principle of patient autonomy.

Doing something with the primary intention to kill them is still illegal (like giving an overdose of morphine), whereas treating their pain with an appropriate dose of morphine is never illegal, even if there is a risk that they'll die from treatment.

Is it really that nice though, to let people die from failure of their body, but not giving them the dignity to go without the suffering that it entails? If you had a terminal condition and really wanted to go, would you not prefer a more humane method than dehydration like morphine infusion with an antiemetic?

i feel every person in life should have a clause of euthanasia in a life insurance policy......... it should be his personal wish if circumstances be later in life that he should respectfully be put to the holy bed.

I for one is against any form of euthanasia although there are some cases that if ever I would encounter, I'd probably passed it to my co-physician Cases such as for example a child who happened to be in an accident were massive blood loss occurred were the immediate treatment to save the child is to give IV infusion of fresh whole blood, however, you found out that the child's religion is one of those who don't adore to blood transfusions...

If a child needs blood transfusion and the parents refuse, unlucky. I'm transfusing that patient as long as I'm on United Kingdom soil. Go go law that lets me save the life of any child even when against their parents wishes :P

What countries consider euthanasia legal? Holland must be one of them, the country seems to be liberal on most issues.

Euthanasia is a controversial issue. Neither we can support it nor can u denounce it. Here is the conflict between your moral and empathatic values. Personally one may support it, because everyone has the right to have a painless death. But no one should forget that one's life is the property of the state and u just cannot destroy it. Moreover if u cannot give a life, u have no right to take it away