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The Morality And Legality Of Voluntary Euthanasia

The Morality and Legality of Voluntary Euthanasia

For most people involved in euthanasia they believe that some conditions are so bad that death is a benefit over living. The motive of the person who commits an act of euthanasia is to benefit the one whose death is brought about. Debate about the morality and legality of voluntary euthanasia has only become an issue in the last half of the twentieth century. The ancient Greeks and Romans did not consider life needed to be preserved at any cost and were tolerant of suicide in cases where no relief could be offered to the dying In the sixteenth century, wrters described communities as one that would facilitate the death of those whose lives had become burdensome as a result of ‘torturing and lingering pain'. But it has only been in the last hundred years that there have been concerted efforts to make legal provision for voluntary euthanasia.
Until quite recently there had been no success in obtaining such legal provision. However, in the nineteen seventies and eighties a series of court cases in The Netherlands culminated in agreement being reached between the legal and medical authorities to ensure that no physician would be prosecuted for assisting a patient to die as long as certain guidelines were strictly adhered. In brief, the guidelines were established to permit physicians to practise voluntary euthanasia in instances where a competent patient had made a voluntary and informed decision to die, the patient's suffering was unbearable, there was no way of making that suffering bearable which was acceptable to the patient, and the physician's judgements as to diagnosis and prognosis were confirmed after consultation with another physician. In the nineteen nineties the first legislative approval for voluntary euthanasia was achieved with the passage of a bill in the parliament of Australia's Northern Territory to enable physicians to practise voluntary euthanasia. Subsequent...

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