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Your Choices:
Last Act of Kindness
The “patient” has gone through so much suffering and are probably in so much pain that it would be the kindest thing possible to end that suffering. It would be the “Last” act of kindness as it is kind to let them die than keep them suffering.
If involuntary euthanasia were to be legalised people could live more of a care free life without fear of having to suffer a great deal for no reason. People could decide that if they ever went into a coma or PVS that they would want to die. The downside would be that people would go about and not care about their safety or that of others because they know that people would want to die if they cannot request euthanasia.
A benefit of involuntary euthanasia is that health resources and medial care can be ‘freed up’ for patients who want to live. If someone is sick and wants to get better, the NHS should give them the best medical care possible. If someone has no hope of ever getting better, and are in a great amount of pain, the kind thing to do would be to let them die in peace. If these people are receiving limited and expensive medical care when it probably wont help them, the NHS shouldn’t waste it on them, and should use it to help people who have a chance of getting better.
If euthanasia was legal it would mean that people would feel like they should commit a last act of kindness towards another person by helping them end their misery and pain. Whereas since it is illegal currently people are scared to help some one to die because they are scared of prosecution. This is a good reason for involuntary euthanasia because you are ending a persons suffering an pain many who are in a pvs. They have no way of telling that they want to end their own life, so a doctor or family member should be allowed to perform a last act of kindness toward that person by euthanising them. I think this is right because if it saves a terminally ill patient that cannot speak from a couple of months of pain it is a good thing.
It is possible that despite what some say, involuntary euthanasia might be an act of hopelessness. To justify involuntary euthanasia some would say that it is a last act of kindness to put a person out of their needless suffering. This, however is not necessarily true because a doctor could run out of options/ ideas to treat a patient and perform euthanasia helplessly because they believe that is the only thing they can do.
A benefit of Involuntary Euthanasia is that it avoids botched jobs by relatives. ‘Botched’ means that it could go wrong if an unprofessional person, like a family member or friend tried to help the patient die. This could lead to the patient being in more pain than before. Doctors would be allowed to carry out the process of Euthanasia to stop the patient from suffering.
society is less caring:
if euthanasia is legalised people might start to think that it is people’s duty to die when they get sick and euthanasia might be seen as the easy way out. patients will feel pressure to opt for euthanasia instead of getting better. this means that we won’t value life any more
The mistaken diagnosis argument is effective because doctors have been known to wrongly diagnose people in the past. This could cause countless numbers of people dying needlessly every day. If someone thinks they are going to die a long and painful death then they are more likely to think about Euthanasia.
A peaceful death of a relative is much nicer for family members as they don’t have to see the ones they love suffer anymore. As the patient is suffering a lot of pain it is nice for family to know that all their painful suffering is over and they passed away peacefully. It also saves relatives trying to do it for them and doing a bad job.
Avoids ‘botched jobs’ by relatives.
One benefit of legalizing involuntary euthanasia is that it would avoid ‘botched jobs’ by relatives. A botched job is when you try to end somebody’s life and you fail, it may lead to the person going through even more suffering. It would be better for relatives to help the person into death peacefully rather than it being full of distress and pain. It would be more reassuring to know that we would never be able to die in pain and agony and doctors would be able to decide when the right time for you to go would be
Can doctors always call it right?
Doctors would have an extremely hard decision to make when deciding who should live and who should die. They may not always make the right decision for the family or for the person involved. They cannot go back on a decision if they feel they have made the wrong choice. The person may be unable to express what they want done and the doctor may end someone’s life who has no intention of dying or a new treatment may be invented in the near future and the family would have lots of hatred for the doctor who was just doing their job. If they make a mistake they have to live the rest of their lives knowing they could have done something differently and knowing the family of the person’s life they ended have to live without them.
If the decision of whether someone should be euthanised or not goes to court, can the judge and jury really decide on that persons life, who cannot communicate back, (this is non-voluntary euthanasia). It is hard for people who probably don’t know the patient to make that decision, and does society have that right or that responsibility to make that choice? I don’t think that it is possible for a judge and jury to choose to kill someone or not. But if family were consulted and close friends about the personality of the patient, doctors about the chances of recovery and the pain and suffering the person is going through, and religious people if the person had any religious views or not, then it may be possible to get quite a good idea of what the person in PVS or something similar would want.
Many think that, as a result of Involuntary Euthanasia becoming legalised, society as a whole would become less caring. This is because they believe if people that suffer have to right to end their life, the concept of fighting for survival from both the patient and the families would be lost and result in society becoming less caring. If Involuntary Euthanasia is legalised and recognised as a common practice, when someone falls ill, the degree of care surrounding them would decrease, as they can end their life when and if they want to.
Mistaken diagnoses is a danger to involuntary euthanasia because some doctors work 16 hour shifts and they can become tired and stressed, and at the end of a shift the doctor mistake symptoms for something else. The family could be told the diagnoses and could react badly and ask for euthanasia to take place. This has all happened because the doctor made a mistake . To stop this from happening 2 or more doctors should check the diagnoses when it looks fatal.
A benefit of involuntary euthanasia could be that it is a last act of kindness for someone, this is because if someone is in pain or in PVS and isn’t living a life of any quality anymore then it would be kinder to kill the person than force them to live an uncomfortable existence. If as a society we have duty to protect, then wouldn’t it be protecting people from suffering by ending their life.
If we legalize involuntary Euthanasia it would remove the fear from family members who wanted to help their family members to die. As the law stands it means that anyone who helps somebody to die can be prosecuted and put in prison. This is a problem for two reasons. Firstly, because it means that relatives who want to end their loved ones lives due to good reasons, such as compassion and wanting them not to suffer, cant do this as it means that they will be put in prison. It also means that people who wan Euthanasia cannot ask family members to help them as they would not want to get them in trouble. However I can see why some people think it is too risky to allow relatives to help people die, as they might do it for immoral reasons. DR.
Peaceful death is better for the family because they know that their relative is in a lot of pain so it will be more peaceful for the patient as a cure might be impossible too. Medically controlled euthanasia avoids relatives having to try themselves so saves them going to court which might result in prosecution.
To allow involuntary euthanasia in Britain would mean that we would have a lot more medical resources instead of using them up on people that are not going to get better. It would mean that instead of keeping someone alive on a life support machine with little chance that they will recover, you could use the the life support machine on someone with a better chance of getting better.
Mistaken Diagnoses
This is a danger towards involuntary euthanasia because of a doctors mistaken diagnoses can lead to them working to many hours therefore lack of rest and less accuracy of a correct diagnoses giving faults in the reaction, making the family asking for euthanasia. However this is not always the case they made be persuaded because of the costs to keep certain patients alive during a PVS (Persistent Vegitative State), the patients family may not want their relative to live due to the large amount of inheritance and doctors may be persuaded. If the patient decides that they want euthanasia and then further on they decide to change their mind they might not have that option, making it a very critical decision to make.
Guilt. Family members could feel guilt after agreeing to euthanasia because they could have made a wrong decision and they’re relative may wake up from PVS and that is a lot for people to carry around with them and they may consider this and opt not to agree to euthanasia for their relative even if it is what’s best for them.