They bear the pain and wait for death. At times, they decide their fate. Some times doctors and families decide it is time for them to go. Even as the Supreme Court has invited states to deliberate on `passive euthanasia' (withdrawal of medical treatment with the intention of causing a terminally ill patient's death), doctors say the...
Kin often hint at withdrawal of medication
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Why Assisted Suicide Laws are More Dangerous Than People Acknowledge
The story about Brittany Maynard, who on Sunday died under Oregon’s assisted suicide program, dominated American news for the last month. As former New England Journal of Medicine editor and leading assisted suicide advocate October 31 in the Washington Post, “Maynard, the 29-year-old with incurable brain cancer, is the new face of the movement to give dying patients the choice to end their lives faster and more humanely. Her youth and attractiveness have helped make her a national media story.” Indeed. The celebrity rag put Maynard on its cover,and , , , the , and a host of others gave her and her backers a forum to promote their cause. Maynard especially targeted her home state of...
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Brittany Maynard and the Search for Better End-of-Life Care in the U.S.
Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old newlywed with an incurable brain tumor, chose to die with dignity at her home in Oregon this weekend. The manner of her death and her public discussion of her decisions have brought renewed attention to the right-to-die movement in the U.S. This has also, unsurprisingly, reignited the controversy surrounding a practice variously known as euthanasia, assisted suicide, aid-in-dying, and death with dignity. Currently five states have laws allowing some form of physician-assisted suicide in the U.S. Though records are incomplete, it is estimated that only a small number of patients actually avail themselves of these rights. Where assisted suicide is not legal,...
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U.K. Courts Grant Mother Right to End Her 12-Year-Old Disabled Daughter’s Life
A British mother was granted the right to end her disabled daughter’s life by withdrawing her feeding tube. Supporters say the girl is no longer in pain, while critics say she was killed for being disabled. This past August, Justice Eleanor King, a High Court Judge in the United Kingdom, granted Charlotte Fitzmaurice’s request to stop giving life-sustaining hydration to her 12-year-old daughter, Nancy. In the ruling, she expressed her admiration for Ms. Fitzmaurice. “The love, devotion and competence of Nancy’s mother are apparent,” said Justice King. “Please, can you tell Nancy’s mother I have great admiration for her.” Nancy was born with meningitis, septicemia, and hydrocephalus. She was...
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5 Things Brittany Maynard's Example Teaches Us
WASHINGTON (RNS) Brittany Maynard’s decision to die soon by a legal, lethal prescription, rather than let a brain tumor kill her, has provoked a national conversation and debate about end-of-life decisions. In a new video, released Wednesday, she says she feels herself getting sicker by the day. But since she still feels joy in living, she’ll postpone her day of death past the date originally announced — Saturday (Nov. 1). Maynard, 29, has inspired raging arguments about the values, even about the vocabulary, underlying the choices we make about our last days. Her goal, she still says, is to “influence this policy (on physician-assisted dying) for positive change.” As ethicists, activists...
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Euthanasia: A question of trust
Medical dilemma: Dr Janey Sklovsky believes the law prevented her from carrying out her mother's wish to die with dignity. Photo: Chris Hopkins Shortly after Janey Sklovsky's mother took her last breath, Janey picked up a camera and started photographing Celia's emaciated body. Like a forensic expert at a crime scene, Janey walked around her precious mum, taking close-ups from various angles to document exactly how she looked when she died. Having slowly starved and dehydrated to death with Alzheimer's Disease, Celiawas curled up in the foetal position on her left side. Her pale cheeks were hollow, her mouth open; her eyes strained and bloodshot. Suffering: Celia Sklovsky in her...
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Right-to-die? Death with dignity? Catholic Church says no
A proposal to allow people to end their own lives legally in cases of terminal illness is sparking debate in Harrisburg. On Tuesday, Bishop David Zubik told Channel 11’s Alan Jennings that the Catholic Church is not in favor of the Death with Dignity Act. “I’d be really distressed to see that happen because, you know, the reality of what we teach in the Catholic Church is the absolute respect for human life from the first moment of conception to the point of natural death,” Zubik said.Pope denounces euthanasia as 'sin against God' Over the last year, two Pennsylvania lawmakers have worked to drum up support for the act. Sen. Daylin Leach said, “You can either die at home with your family, or...
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Life not death: Why euthanasia and assisted suicide must be prohibited
MONTREAL, Nov. 20, 2014 /CNW Telbec/ - On November 6, 2014, an educational dinner conference entitled "Life is Beautiful" was sponsored by the Coalition of Physicians for Social Justice. Several well-known international speakers described the dangers and abuses of euthanasia for those facing the end of life. Dr. Balfour Mount, founder of Palliative Care in North America, and a McGill Surgical Oncologist has survived two life-threatening cancers (testicular and esophageal) with the most recent prognosis of less that 5%. He questioned the confusing terminology used by the promoters of euthanasia who use the term "medical aid in dying" as a "cowardly distortion...
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/R E P E A T -- Life not death: Why euthanasia and assisted suicide ...
MONTREAL, Nov. 20, 2014 /CNW Telbec/ - On November 6, 2014, an educational dinner conference entitled "Life is Beautiful" was sponsored by the Coalition of Physicians for Social Justice. Several well-known international speakers described the dangers and abuses of euthanasia for those facing the end of life. Dr. Balfour Mount, founder of Palliative Care in North America, and a McGill Surgical Oncologist has survived two life-threatening cancers (testicular and esophageal) with the most recent prognosis of less that 5%. He questioned the confusing terminology used by the promoters of euthanasia who use the term "medical aid in dying" as a "cowardly distortion...
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Anger over Key's euthanasia comments
Medical specialists who care for the terminally ill are angered by Prime Minister John Key's comments that euthanasia already effectively happens in hospitals regularly. Mr Key made the comment on Newstalk ZB this week, saying if he was terminally ill in hospital and in pain "if they just effectively wanted to turn off the switch and legalise that by legalising euthanasia, I'd want that. "I look at a situation where I think there's a lot of euthanasia that effectively happens in our hospitals." The comments have angered hospice and...
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‘Forcing ventilator on dying is assault’
Taking the right call on an end-of-life decision is vital to provide relief to terminally-ill patients with no hope of recovery so that scarce resources are diverted to those who can be saved, says critical care specialist RK Mani, ex-president of the Indian Society Of Critical Care Medicine and lead author of the society's position paper on end-of-life and palliative care in intensive care units tells Rema Nagarajan of the urgent need for guidelines to address the issue of terminating life support. He is now chairman, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Saket City Hospital. Why do you object to the word euthanasia? Euthanasia is a very narrow definition. The term passive euthanasia...
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PM's 'misguided' euthanasia views anger palliative care specialists
Medical specialists who care for the terminally ill are angered by Prime Minister John Key's comments that euthanasia already effectively happens in hospitals regularly. Mr Key made the comment on Newstalk ZB this week, saying if he was terminally ill in hospital and in pain "if they just effectively wanted to turn off the switch and legalise that by legalising euthanasia, I'd want that. "I look at a situation where I think there's a lot of euthanasia that...
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Good Death vs. Doctor Knows Best
Barbara Coombs Lee, the sharp and articulate president of Compassion & Choices, spoke to the issue of death with dignity on PBS NewsHour October 14, with opposing views presented by Ira Byock, noted physician, author and advocate for palliative care. Neither really won; the time was too short and the issue is too complex. The Death With Dignity movement, though, is not going away, and we the people will only win when the movement wins. Lee spent 25 years as a nurse and physician's assistant before becoming an attorney and devoting her life to personal choice and autonomy at life's end. She believes a terminally ill, mentally competent adult should have the right to end his or her life when...
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Appeals court rules on state doctors' obligations
The government has no constitutional obligation to provide health care to patients in state doctors' care, a state appeals court ruled Thursday. Disability Rights Wisconsin filed a lawsuit in May 2009 against five University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics doctors, claiming they violated the rights of two developmentally disabled patients by withholding medical treatment. One, a minor who had pneumonia and required artificial nutrition and hydration, died. The doctors were...
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Proxy euthanasia common in India
NEW DELHI: Law or no law, euthanasia in a surrogate form is practised in India. Instances of doctors scaling down medical intervention where patients have no chance of recovery aren't unheard of. Such decisions are taken only after families are convinced they exhausted all options. The terminally-ill are allowed to sink till they breathe their last. In some cases, the de-escalation is so...
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Belgium on track to allow child euthanasia
Jutte van der Werff Ten Bosch has already had the talk with her 10-year-old son. Several times, in fact. No, not the sex talk. The euthanasia talk. ''Even if he said, 'I want to die', I'd support him,'' she explained. ''I didn't put my children in the world for me. It's their life and their death. The best parents are the ones who let their children go.'' Professor van der Werff Ten Bosch's dinner-table conversations with her son and her three other children are far from hypothetical: They live in Belgium, where a law allowing child euthanasia is on track to be passed early next year. The law, which follows a 2002 law making euthanasia legal for consenting adults, will allow terminally ill...
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Quebec Euthanasia Bill Violates International Law - Remedial action requested of Secretary General of the United Nations
Download image 16 year old Nadine is happy to be alive after surviving leukemia and a bone marrow transplant. She is grateful for the love and support of her mother Claude. Both oppose Quebec's euthanasia law. (Photo credit: coalitionmd.org). ... MONTREAL, Feb. 17, 2014 /PRNewswire/ - Quebec's proposed law on euthanasia will allow a lethal substance to be injected into an adult person at "the end of life" (which is not defined in the proposed law) who has unsupportable suffering. (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140217/MM66206) Quebec's Health Care System Today Quebec's health care system is managed by the provincial government of Quebec, Canada. This system is plagued by...
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Quebec Euthanasia Bill Violates International Law - Remedial action requested of Secretary General of the ...
MONTREAL, Feb. 17, 2014 /CNW Telbec/ - Quebec's proposed law on euthanasia will allow a lethal substance to be injected into an adult person at "the end of life" (which is not defined in the proposed law) who has unsupportable suffering. Quebec's Health Care System Today Quebec's health care system is managed by the provincial government of Quebec, Canada. This system is plagued by deficiencies including lack of access to family doctors [for 25% of its population], to pediatricians for children and to specialists and specialized tests [resulting in long wait-times]. Moreover, up to 80% of its people lack access to palliative care in some regions. Thus, many Quebecers will be forced to accept...
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France wants to legalize terminal sedation
Published December 15, 2014Associated Press Facebook0 Twitter0 Email Print Senior woman visiting with her doctor or caregiver (iStock) PARIS – France's president wants to allow doctors to keep terminally ill patients sedated until death comes, amid a national debate about whether to legalize euthanasia. Francois Hollande stopped short of recommending lethal injections and avoided the terms euthanasia and assisted suicide, highly sensitive issues in this majority-Catholic country. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Instead, he called Friday for a law that would give people "the right to deep, continuous sedation until death" - at...
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/R E P E A T -- Quebec Euthanasia Bill Violates International Law - Remedial ...
MONTREAL, Feb. 17, 2014 /CNW Telbec/ - Quebec's proposed law on euthanasia will allow a lethal substance to be injected into an adult person at "the end of life" (which is not defined in the proposed law) who has unsupportable suffering. Quebec's Health Care System Today Quebec's health care system is managed by the provincial government of Quebec, Canada. This system is plagued by deficiencies including lack of access to family doctors [for 25% of its population], to pediatricians for children and to specialists and specialized tests [resulting in long wait-times]. Moreover, up to 80% of its people lack access to palliative care in some regions. Thus, many Quebecers will be forced to accept...
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Quebec doctors unite against medical aid in dying
A growing group of doctors are speaking out against medical aid in dying, as Quebec moves forward with the process of drafting its controversial "dying with dignity" legislation. The man known as the father of palliative care, Dr. Balfour Mount, has strong opinions when it comes to end of life care. "Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide makes it necessary for a society to legalize killing — ending life....
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Quebec doctors unite agaist medical aid in dying
A growing group of doctors are speaking out against medical aid in dying, as Quebec moves forward with the process of drafting its controversial "dying with dignity" legislation. The man known as the father of palliative care, Dr. Balfour Mount, has strong opinions when it comes to end of life care. "Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide makes it necessary for a society to legalize killing—ending life....
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Froma Harrop commentary: Death With Dignity laws help to make the slope less slippery
The story of Brittany Maynard has revived the debate over Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act. The law lets terminally ill patients end their lives with the aid of a doctor. That Maynard is a pretty 29-year-old newlywed using her personal tragedy to broaden support for such laws provokes and rankles foes of physician-assisted suicide. She also rejects the term suicide. Maynard suffers from a malignant brain tumor, which extensive surgery failed to contain. Given six months to live about six months ago, she and her family moved from California to Oregon...
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What is euthanasia? Is it the same as physician-assisted suicide?
What is euthanasia? In humans euthanasia is the induction of death in a person who has a terminal illness. This act is also known as a mercy killing because it is assumed to be committed as an act of compassion; carried out to end suffering and pain. There are various types of euthanasia; voluntary, involuntary, active and passive. In voluntary euthanasia, the patient grants consent to have their life ended by a healthcare professional. Involuntary euthanasia occurs without a patient granting consent to end their life. Active euthanasia takes place when a terminally ill patient is given a drug to induce death. In a passive euthanasia, the patient’s medical treatment that is sustaining life...
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Court in France says end life support for tetraplegic
France's highest court, the Council of State, has ruled in favour of ending life support for a man who has remained in a vegetative state for six years. Vincent Lambert, 39, was left a tetraplegic after a motorcycle accident and his family is split over whether he should be kept alive. His parents have appealed to the European Court of Human Rights. The case is seen as unprecedented in France, where euthanasia is illegal though doctors can withdraw care. They may do so under a 2005...
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To End Our Days (The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life)
(Source: The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life) In recent years, questions concerning the end of life have become the subject of intense public debate and disagreement. Legislatures and courts, religious leaders and scientists, citizens and patient advocates have all weighed in on issues ranging from whether the terminally ill should have the right to take their own lives to how much treatment and sustenance those in the last stages of life should receive. Much of the controversy centers on physician-assisted suicide - called "aid in dying" by some supporters - in which a terminally ill patient is able to end his or her own life with the help of medical professionals. In the last 20 years,...
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European rights court: Keep tetraplegic on life support
The European Court of Human Rights says French doctors must keep treating a man who has been in a coma for six years. Vincent Lambert, 39, was left a tetraplegic after a motorcycle accident. His family is split over whether he should be kept alive. On Tuesday, France's highest court, the Council of State, ruled in favour of ending Mr Lambert's life support. The case is seen as unprecedented in France, where euthanasia is illegal though doctors can withdraw care. The move by the European Court of Human Rights suspends the French...
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Death with dignity bills heading toward Diet
It was 2 a.m. when Chiaki rushed to the hospital to see her 63-year-old father, who had collapsed from a ruptured aortic aneurysm. Six hours after surgery, the doctor told her and her mother that he was going to die even though the operation had been successful, because he was losing blood from damaged blood vessels, said the Fukuoka native, who did not want her family name revealed. Then the doctor asked her if she wanted the artificial respirator turned off. "My mind went blank," Chiaki said, recalling that moment last June. But she asked the doctor to switch off the machine. "My mother and I instantly remembered my father was someone who never wanted to make trouble and he would want us...
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A Point of View: The biggest decision
A personal essay by the writer Will Self arguing that we should accept the right of people nearing the end of their lives, to take matters into their own hands if they wish. This may seem rather shocking to you but I am expecting to kill myself. Really I am, and if you'll hear me out I hope to at least nudge society in the direction of considering suicide acceptable when - and this is the important point - the alternative is a slow painful death from a terminal illness. Why? Well, the facts are pretty persuasive when it comes to the business of British dying. We're living longer and longer, while our deaths are becoming commensurately more protracted. Such is the brilliance of...
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California should revive right-to-die legislation
California last considered right-to-die legislation in 2007. But now, the case of Brittany Maynard, a Californian who moved to Oregon so that she could painlessly end her life, may help persuade the Legislature to try again. Legislation in California and elsewhere has been defeated partly because of outcry from religious groups that suicide is an immoral act. - Over the last month, Maynard has become a national poster case for such laws. She's an attractive spokeswoman, only 29 years old, rational and articulate on the subject of why she plans to end her life — perhaps as soon as Saturday — before her aggressive brain cancer can rob her of cognitive function and impose a painful,...
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Liverpool Care Pathway: A way of death worth fighting for?
It was developed as a measure to help ease the suffering of the dying. Instead it is alleged to have introduced “backdoor euthanasia” into the NHS, leading to the early deaths of tens of thousands of patients in return for millions of pounds in “bribes” for hospitals. Specialists in palliative medicine have hit back at critics of the so-called Liverpool Care Pathway, a checklist devised to help hospital doctors and nurses assist patients to a humane, dignified and pain-free end. They argued that its aim was to enable patients to “live until they die” – freed from the paraphernalia of tubes and machines that can increase distress. The measure, developed over a decade ago by palliative care...
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Charlotte Fitzmaurice Wise wins right to end daughter Nancy’s life
A 324-WORD statement convinced a High Court judge in the UK to create legal history and grant a mother the right to terminate her severely disabled daughter’s life. Nancy Fitzmaurice, born blind with hydrocephalus, meningitis and septicaemia, could not walk, talk, eat or drink, the Mirror reported. Her health was so poor she required 24-hour care and was fed, watered and medicated by tube at London’s Great Ormand Street Hospital. Her health deteriorated and as she grew...
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Euthanasia and assisted suicide laws around the world
On Friday the House of Lords will debate a bill on assisted dying. See how other countries have legislated on the issue ...
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DYING WISH Arunabha Sengupta The acquittal of the former doctor, Nicolas Bonnemaison, by a court ...
The acquittal of the former doctor, Nicolas Bonnemaison, by a court in the French town of Pau recently garnered great media attention. He was accused of having murdered seven terminally ill patients by giving them lethal injections. The jury, presumably made up of local people, dodged every uncomfortable question and concluded that Bonnemaisons homicidal intent had not been established. Perhaps this revealed the veiled support in Catholic communities such as that in Pau for hastening death to end suffering. Such popular support has enabled the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and a handful of states...
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French doctor acquitted of 'mercy killing' charges
A French doctor has been acquitted of poisoning charges after giving lethal injections to help seven of his terminally ill patients die. Lawyers for doctor Nicolas Bonnemaison hailed the decision, describing it as a "monumental verdict". Several relatives of the victims testified on the doctor's behalf. Earlier, the European Court of Human Rights overruled France's highest court and said that a man in a six-year coma must keep receiving medical treatment. It suspended the Council of State's earlier ruling in favour of ending life support...
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‘Babies don’t need to die like this’: The argument for child euthanasia
Mementos of Ella-Louise’s short life fill a cosy corner of the Van Roy household. There are tiny footprints in messy paint; framed photographs of the baby girl with a proud older brother; paper butterflies representing the beauty and fragility of Ella-Louise’s 10 months with her family. But this mantelpiece display of warmth and love is not all Ella-Louise’s mother wants people to see. As Belgian politicians debate a proposal to amend the country’s euthanasia laws to include children, Linda Van Roy also wants to share her child’s final days. “I’ll show you how my daughter was and what she became – you will see why I want to speak up,” she says, opening a book of photographs. The amateur...
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Assisted suicide: New Mexico court asked to redefine the term
Aja Riggs battles her cancer, but she's realistic The question before the court in New Mexico is absurdly simple and yet impossibly complex. What is the meaning of "assisting suicide"? If a terminally ill patient refuses a ventilator or a feeding tube and the physician yields to that decision, is that assisting suicide? If the patient is in excruciating pain and requests total sedation and no nutrition or fluids, can the doctor be held accountable for his death? What if the patient seeks a prescription from her physician so that when the pain of dying is overwhelming she can seek the ultimate relief on her own? Two oncologists from the University of New Mexico Health Science Center and a...
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Anti-euthanasia doctors hostile to Quebec's assisted suicide bill
Quebec's bill to legalize medically assisted suicide has the support of all four parties in the province's national assembly. However, support for Bill 52 is far from unanimous, especially among doctors who would be expected to act on a patient's request for help in dying. The Physicians' Alliance for Total Refusal of Euthanasia condemned the bill, accusing the Marois government of caving in to "small but persistent" lobby groups and pushing Quebecers onto a dangerous path. "This is not a small opening," said Dr. Marc Beauchamp, the orthopedic surgeon who...
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Stopping fluids at the end of life: a dilemma not just for Kasemâs family
By Randi Belisomo NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In the family disputes that surrounded American radio icon Casey Kasemâs last weeks of life, his daughterâs decision to carry out Kasemâs wish - to suspend artificial feedings and fluids - was among the most contested. Kasemâs advance directive called for no life-sustaining treatment if it âwould result in a mere biological existence.â But his wife opposed a court order allowing an end to artificial measures; her attorney called it a âfunctional equivalent of a death sentence.â The Kasem family infighting is...
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Religious Groups’ Views on End-of-Life Issues (The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life)
(Source: The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life) In the following summaries, religious leaders, scholars and ethicists from 16 major American religious groups explain how their faith traditions' teachings address physician-assisted suicide, euthanasia and other end-of-life questions. (For an in-depth look at public opinion on end-of-life issues, see "Views on End-of-Life Medical Treatments." And for an overview of the political, legal and ethical dimensions of the end-of-life debate, see "To End Our Days.") Assemblies of God The Assemblies of God, the largest Pentecostal denomination in the United States, opposes physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia. The denomination teaches that life...
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FIRST OPINION: Finding a path to dignity in death
Related articles VITAL SIGNS: ‘A human right: choosing death with dignity over a life in pain’ VITAL SIGNS: Lessons in the art of living a stress-free life PALLIATIVE MEDICINE: To die for — quality of life as illness bites SA MAY not be a safe and appropriate place for liberalising the law on voluntary euthanasia. For doctor-assisted dying, it could be — with all the right safeguards in place Death has been on my mind more than usual lately. Not that I have a morbid fascination with it. It’s just that as a wannabe Buddhist, I know the Grim Reaper is more friend than foe. The Buddha taught that death is part of life, the key that unlocks life’s mystery. By understanding death, we begin to...
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Some families would consider terminal sedation for brain injured relatives in a permanent vegetative state (University of York)
(Source: University of York) Posted on 15 January 2014 The families of some very severely brain injured patients believe that once all treatment options are exhausted, allowing their relatives to die with the help of terminal sedation would be a humane and compassionate option, research carried out by the University of York and Cardiff University has revealed. The study, based on interviews with the families of patients in a vegetative or minimally conscious state, found some relatives believed euthanasia by sedation would be preferable to withholding or withdrawing treatment. Currently, the withdrawal of treatment such as artificial nutrition and hydration is the only legal method...
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Stopping fluids at the end of life: a dilemma not just for Kasem’s family
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In the family disputes that surrounded American radio icon Casey Kasem’s last weeks of life, his daughter’s decision to carry out Kasem’s wish - to suspend artificial feedings and fluids - was among the most contested. Kasem’s advance directive called for no life-sustaining treatment if it “would result in a mere biological existence.” But his wife opposed a court order allowing an end to artificial measures; her attorney called it a “functional equivalent of a death sentence.” The Kasem family infighting is unfortunately not unique. It mirrors the struggles of countless other families, whether their loved ones have dementias like Kasem’s, or advanced cancers...
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End of life distinct from euthanasia, experts say
NEW DELHI: The Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine (ISCCM) and Indian Association of Palliative Care (IAPC) on Saturday clarified that end of life (EOL) was distinct from 'euthanasia' and the two terms should not be confused. Both the organizations also joined hands to campaign for what they call a "good death". In the healthcare sector, critical care is usually associated with curing acute conditions and palliative care is often seen as just the opposite. While euthanasia refers to putting an end to somebody's life as an act of mercy through a lethal injection, the term 'passive euthanasia' is also not appropriate, say experts....
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Terms and Definitions (The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life)
(Source: The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life) November 21, 2013 Terms and Definitions Aid-in-dying and physician-assisted-suicide laws State laws making it legal for a physician to prescribe lethal medication to a terminally ill, mentally competent patient who wants to end his or her life. This is currently allowed in four states: Oregon, Washington state, Montana and Vermont. Each state has different conditions under which physician-assisted suicide is legal. Elsewhere, such an act would be considered...
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Human Euthanasia, The Debate: The Arguments for Both Sides
Human euthanasia is an emotionally charged subject for those who argue for and those who argue against. Arguments supporting euthanasia include ending suffering, freedom of choice to decide how and when one dies, and being able to die with dignity. Arguments opposing euthanasia include that euthanasia is murder, use of palliative care to provide for a more comfortable, dignified death, and in most cases, the desire to die prematurely is rooted in depression. This article takes a critical look at both sides of the debate with the purpose of presenting a non-biased look at both sides allowing the reader to form his or her own opinion when presented with the facts and arguments of both sides....
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