Moral/ Ethical Concern

In

Legalizing Euthanasia
Introduction

Life is the greatest gift of God in the universe especially to mankind and only Him have

the right to take it away anytime. Every human being is yearning to live and have a happy

life until the end of their last breath. We say or think that if a person takes his/her own life

then we simply think or say that he/she committed suicide but for those people who are

suffering from incurable deceased such as Cancer, Leukemia, Lesch-Nyhan syndrome,

AIDS and other more, and wanted to end his/her suffering by requesting his/her doctor or

with the consent of the family member if the patient is in comatose and only living with

the help of life support then we called it euthanasia. Euthanasia here in the Philippines is

illegal. In 1997, the Philippines Senate considering passing a bill legalizing the passive

euthanasia but met strong opposition from the country’s Catholic Church which hinder the

ratification of the Euthanasia Bill. Also, majority of the Filipinos value Christian doctrine

as the foundation of their doctrine. Even though euthanasia is not legal here in the

Philippines some of the people are using euthanasia or mercy killing especially on

terminally ill patient and most of the people using it are the poor one since they don’t have

the financial to continue the treatment of their loves one and they leave no choice but to

stop the patient from suffering from pain even though it’s hard for them.

Definitions

The term Euthanasia comes from the Greek word Eu (good) and Thanatos (death) and it

means “Good Death”, “Gentle and Easy Death”. Sometimes also called ‘mercy killing’.

In Black's Law Dictionary euthanasia means, the act or practice of killing or bringing about
the death of a person who suffers from an incurable disease or condition, a painful one, for

reasons of mercy. Death with dignity and without suffering, but the question is, how do we

go about achieving this?

Kinds of Euthanasia

Active Euthanasia – taking life to avoid suffering. This involves doing something; it

involves killing; it involves being the cause of death.

Voluntary Euthanasia: euthanasia is performed at the request of the patient.

Non- Voluntary Euthanasia: euthanasia is performed when patient is incapable of

consenting.

Passive Euthanasia – Allowing death to occur in order to avoid suffering. This involves

allowing someone to die; it involves letting someone to die; the person who lets the person

die is not the cause of the death but the medical condition is.

Moral/ Ethical Issues on Euthanasia

Religious Concerns

Against Medical Ethics

Active Euthanasia as a Tool for Murder

Patient Suffering at the end of life

Religious Concerns
Since majority of the population in the Philippines is Cristian, we value life more than any

other and of course Catholic Churches will strongly disagree or opposed to euthanasia.

Roman Catholic church regards euthanasia as morally wrong. It has always taught the

absolute and unchanging value of the commandment “You shall not kill”. ‘Euthanasia is

a grave violation of the law of God, since it is the deliberate and morally unacceptable

killing of a human person’ - Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, 1995. We always believe

that human life is sacred and God gives people life and human being are made in God’s

image so only God has the right to take it away.

Muslim in the Philippines is also against euthanasia and they also believe that all human

life is sacred because it is given by Allah, and that Allah chooses how long each will live.

IMANA(the Islamic Medical Association of America ) says that turning off life support

for deemed to be a persistent vegetative state is permissible, this is because they consider

all mechanical life support procedures as temporary measures.

Against Medical Ethics

Hippocatic Oath stated that no harm should made to a patient whereas if the doctor agrees

to euthanasia his/her actually harming the patient. And that make sense since doctor should

try to save its patients and not to do harm. But how can we distinguish if the doctor is

harming it’s patient? Does removing life support system harming the patient? Even though

its already have the consent of the patient or not the consent of its family?

Active Euthanasia as a Tool for Murder

Non- Voluntary Euthanasia can be used as a Tool for Murder. Since the patient is incapable

of giving his/her consent, does we have the right to decide for his/her life?

Patient Suffering at End of Life

Every one of us have the right to live with dignity and should die on natural way. We

should always respect oneself.

Conclusion

Euthanasia has now become an important issue for our modern time and society especially

in the medical field. For the moral view point, people should know that human life is a God

given that it is sacred. Cancer, Leukemia, Lesch-Nyhan syndrome and AIDS, these kinds

of diseases may consider inhumane that give suffering to people. Euthanasia or also called

mercy killing is always

References.

https://www.philippinemedicalassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Code-of-

Ethics-of-Medical-Profession.pdf