Ethical issues in medicine Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Ethical issues in medicine - Essay Example n europe regarding a suicidal act was that if any person performs a suicidal act upon him, then the court of law used to order the local police to drag the body of that person on the streets, just to set an example for those, who wished to perform a suicidal act upon them (Emanuel, 1805-1810). By the end of the 18th century, Euthanasia was quite a controversial topic of discussion. Many experts had ejected the idea of euthanasia and considered to be morally and ethically illegal. But in 1828, for the first time ever in history of mankind, The constituiton of USA made assisted suicide illegal. However, By 1930, Euthanasia had started to gain strong support in USA and other westernicized socities of the world and they were in favor of it. By the 20th and ealy 21st century, Euthanasia has made strong progress in Europe. Countries like Netherlands and Belgium have made it legal. Even Australia and USA have made steps to legalize it. Euthanasia can be either an active euthanasia or passive euthanasia. Passive euthanasia refers to taking the life of the other person, at his request, by removing the life supporting means. There can be two kinds of life supporting means, ordinary life supporting means and extraordinary life supporting means. Ordinary life supporting means, such as food and water, are basic human needs, which are required by a person at regular intervals, in order to continue his life. In addition, any such death which is caused by the failure to provide the ordinary life supporting means does not comes under the definition of euthanasia. However, it is not necessary for a person to use extraordinary life supporting means to continue his life and a person also has an absolute freedom to discontinue any such medical treatment which can be categorized as an extraordinary life supporting mean. This is because, as there are many intricacies involved in deaths which are caused by the removal of extraordi nary life supporting means, so each such case of death