Euthanasia: Medical point of view 1

Running Head: EUTHANASIA: MEDICAL POINT OF VIEW

Euthanasia: Medical Point of View

Name, L. Student

Universidad Católica de El Salvador

Centro Regional de Ilobasco

By STUDENT’S NAME, Monday, February 5th, 2017. I affirm that the work represented
in this essay is my own and does not include the written work or ideas of any other individual
except where indicated. _______________________
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EUTHANASIA

MEDICAL POINT OF VIEW

“I'm not afraid of being dead. I'm just afraid of what you might have to go through to
get there.” (Bone, P 2007). Euthanasia is the considered limit of a patient’s life in order to
prevent further suffering. It is understood as an action or omission that by its nature or
intention causes death, in order to eliminate any pain. Euthanasia is not a practice that has
emerged today, but was already present in the first human societies. Throughout history this
term has served to refer to infinity of concepts related to death, deviating from its initial
conception. On the other hand, medicine is the act of saving lives; therefore it makes
euthanasia one of most controversial practices within this science. However, there are some
gaps that people ignore. It is important to know the types of euthanasia, the reason why it is
asked, and the doctor's real labor to make an accurate judgement.

There is a lot of confusion about how to qualify euthanasia nowadays. In the Spanish-
speaking world, concepts from the ethical evaluation of euthanasia have been introduced; and
it is classified as direct or indirect, also if there is or not an intention to cause death primarily.
In the Anglo-Saxon context, a distinction is made between euthanasia as action and euthanasia
as omission. The direct form is anticipating the time of death in case of an incurable disease,
this could be active; use of deadly special substances or morphine overdose, or passive which
according to Varela, P (2010) "Passive euthanasia can take two forms: therapeutic abstention
and therapeutic suspension”. On the other hand, the indirect form consists of carrying out
therapeutic procedures that have as a secondary effect the death; it means that it is not looking
for death primarily. And dysthanasia that consists in delaying the advent of death as much as
possible, even if there is no hope of healing.

The reason for requesting euthanasia is related mostly with pain produced by a
terminal illness. Feelings of worthlessness, depression, family reasons and lack of
transcendence can be mentioned as well. It is known that the worst tumors are those that do
not cause pain since they grow without being detected; and when they are diagnosed, the
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medicine is unable to cure them because they have already become malignant and
metastasized. Once, the pain is no longer useful; it is absurd and inhumane to keep the patient
in a state of unnecessary prostration. In addition, it has been shown that the medical treatment
of pain also improves the evolution of the patient's disease, since it decreases a set of cascades
of reactions that are activated by pain, and only lead to a worse quality of life. Anyone who
has been in contact with convalescent patients will have experienced some cases of frustration
of the patient before his dependence for being unable to live as they wish to.

The specific actions that a clinical doctor carries out are to diagnose, treat and
formulate the prognosis of the illness that a person suffers, and be honest with it. In addition,
in his educational role, he advises the patients about preventive measures that prevent or
reduce the possibility of relapsing in their disease. Any action that the doctor undertakes to
achieve the stated purposes is a medical act. A doctor is required by a patient who wishes to
heal or relieve, and who needs his support to recover his health, what the doctor will try to
achieve with the means at his disposal. However, Some seem to forget their real role that they
must make feel the patient well and respect his decision, as Doctors; they will see a lot of
nasty things and people will die in their hands. Euthanasia is not considered ethic because it is
“killing” people, but is it more ethic add more suffering when as a doctor you know they are
not going to make it out? It is important to be realistic and objective. Doctor must do anything
to take out pain and suffering.

In conclusion, euthanasia is one of the most controversial topics; its practice has been
judged in a wrong way and called not ethic. People use the “human dignity” against this
practice, but this term is in favor as well, because the patient is free and has freedom to
choose. It does not make sense to live a life that he cannot live. Why powerful and smart
scientists are more focused on prolong life instead of finding pleasant ways to end it? People
ignore that euthanasia is not kill people because doctors want to kill them, no way. There are
different types of it, and not all of them look for death primarily; they ignore the principal
reason is an inhuman pain, and doctor’s work is to fight against of patients’ hurting. When you
suffer you close yourself, you end up increasing your pain, and suffering becoming bitter, and
a bitter life; the truth is that it is not worth much to live it.
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REFERENCES

 Euthanasia - ProCon.org. (n.d.). Retrieved February 5, 2018, from

 Anyessays.wordpress.com | Website Review for anyessays.wordpress.com. (n.d.).

 Goodreads. (n.d.). Retrieved February 5, 2018, from https://www.goodreads.com/

 Thesis, Documents, Publications, and educational resources. (n.d.). Retrieved February 5,

 Death, Euthanasia, and palliative care by Luis Fernando Giraldo-Cadavid, retrieve 5, 2018
from http://www.scielo.org.co/pdf/pebi/v12n2/v12n2a07.pdf