Euthanasia is the act of a physician or another third party that terminates the life of a patient due

to intense, persistent, and incurable pain or distress. This is sometimes called assisted suicide,
mercy killing, physician-assisted suicide, or other alternatives. However, according to (De Lima
et al., 2017) assisted suicide is different from euthanasia.
Assisted suicide is the intentional and deliberate giving opportunity to others to commit suicide.
For example, prescribing drugs to people known to commit suicide.
Euthanasia involves a person, such as a doctor, deliberately killing someone with severe
intractable pain. For example, a doctor injects a drug to cause a coma and then stops the heart.
At present, physician-assisted suicide is legal in some countries, including Oregon, California,
Vermont, Hawaii, New Jersey, Washington DC, and Maine (Morrow, 2020).
The question of whether euthanasia/physician-assisted suicide is ethically right or not.
Advocates of euthanasia argue that civilized society should allow patients to die in a dignified
and painless life and allow others to help them if they cannot cope with it (McKinnon &
Orellana-Barrios, 2019, p38). They say that our bodies are our own and we should be able to do
whatever we want to them. Therefore, it is wrong to force someone to live beyond their
expectations. In fact, when people do not want to live then force them to do so violates their
personal freedom and human rights.
Religious believers who oppose euthanasia believe that life is bestowed by God, and only God
can decide when to end life mainly known as ““traditional ethical principle” (Banović et al.,
2017, p176). Other opponents worry that once euthanasia is legal, it violates the applicable
euthanasia law and kills those who really don’t want to die.
I support the argument that one euthanasia/ physician-assisted suicide is ethical when a patient is
in pain or he/she is not able to cope with it. Patients may decide to die to get relief from pain. But
it shouldn’t be done without consent of patient, no one should make decision about it except
patient. Otherwise, it should be considered as illegal and criminal act.

Banović, B., Turanjanin, V., & Miloradović, A. (2017). An ethical review of euthanasia and
physician-assisted suicide. Iranian Journal of Public Health, 46(2), 173–179.
De Lima, L., Woodruff, R., Pettus, K., Downing, J., Buitrago, R., Munyoro, E., Venkateswaran,
C., Bhatnagar, S., & Radbruch, L. (2017). International Association for Hospice and
Palliative Care Position Statement: Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide. Journal of
Palliative Medicine, 20(1), 8–14. https://doi.org/10.1089/jpm.2016.0290
McKinnon, B., & Orellana-Barrios, M. (2019). Ethics in physician-assisted dying and
euthanasia. The Southwest Respiratory and Critical Care Chronicles, 7(30), 36–42.
https://doi.org/10.12746/swrccc.v7i30.561

Morrow, A. (2020, November 18). What Is Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide?

Verywell Health. https://www.verywellhealth.com/what-is-euthanasia-1132209.