Marina Rocha Daros

11/04/2015
Prof. Shaw
UWRT 100
Why we need to talk about euthanasia
From Greek, the word euthanasia means good death. It is a practice of ending life with
the purpose of relieving suffering and pain. It can be classified in voluntary that happens when
the patient gives consent, non-voluntary, when the patient is not able to give consent,
involuntary, when the person is able to give consent but does not and passive euthanasia, when
the patient chooses to not receive treatment.
Euthanasia is a subject that has always generated controversies, mostly because of
religious views, but also because it can have a big impact in many different areas, as public
health, law and ethics. These are the reason I got interested in this subject and why I think we
need to talk about it.
People who are against euthanasia usually defend Palliative Care. This is a medical
treatment that focus on the patients quality of life, trying to relieve pain, suffering and stress
caused by the disease.
There are several reasons why people decide to perform euthanasia. People with diseases
which treatment is not enough may want to decide to end their lives given the treatment is not
working anymore. The family of people who has been in a vegetative state may want to perform
it because there is no expectative of the person waking up or because they cannot pay the
medical expenses anymore. In other words, people lives and quality of life should not decrease
because of religious views, because not everyone has one, for a start.
This research project aims to collect different opinions about euthanasia from different
aspects to build a wide view, focusing on the religious one, in order to argue why a person should
have the right to perform euthanasia if she wants to.