BY:

AIMY ADLINA SOFIA ABDUL

HALIM
 What is Euthanasia?
 The intentional killing by act or omission of
a dependent human being for his or her
alleged benefit.

 The key word here is “intentional”. If death

is not intended, it is not an act of
euthanasia.
 DEFINITON
 Euthanasia (from the Greek ευθανασία meaning "good
death": ευ-, eu- (well or good) + θάνατος, thanatos (death))
refers to the practice of ending of person or an animal
because they are perceived as living and intolerable life, in a
painless or minimally painful way either by lethal injection,
drug overdose, or by the withdrawal of a life support

 According to the House of Lords Select Committee on

Medical Ethics, the precise definition of euthanasia is "a
deliberate intervention undertaken with the express intention
of ending a life, to relieve intractable suffering."
 Classification of Euthanasia
 Euthanasia may be classified according to whether a
person gives informed consent into 3 types:

1) Voluntary
2) Non-voluntary
3) Involuntary
 Voluntary
 Voluntary euthanasia occurs with the fully-
informed request of a decisionally-competent adult
patient or that of their surrogate (proxy).
 This should not be confused with death after
treatment is stopped on the instructions of the
patient himself either directly or through a do not
resuscitate (DNR) order.
 Enforcing a DNR order has never been considered
assisted suicide or suicide of any kind, at least in
the eyes of the law. Patients of sound mind have
always had a right to refuse treatment.
 Non-voluntary
 Non-voluntary euthanasia occurs without the fully-
informed consent and fully-informed request of a
decisionally-competent adult patient or that of their
surrogate (proxy).
 An example of this might be if a “patient” has
decisional capacity but it is not told they will be
euthanized; or, if a patient is not conscious or
lacks decisional-capacity and their surrogate is not
told the patient will be euthanized.
 Involuntary
 Involuntary euthanasia occurs over the objection of a
patient their surrogate (proxy).
 An example of this might be if a patient with decisional
capacity (or their surrogate) is told what will happen. The
patient (or surrogate) refuses yet the patient is
euthanized anyway.
 This is generally considered murder. If a patient slated for
euthanasia changes his or her mind at the last minutes,
the doctor is categorically required by law to honor that
wish. In most other countries removing or denying
treatment without the clear instruction of the patient is
usually seen as murder.
 in a discussion of euthanasia presented in 2003 by the
European Association of Palliative Care (EPAC) Ethics
Task Force, the authors offered the unambiguous
statement:

“ Medicalized killing of a person without the person's

consent, whether nonvoluntary (where the person in
unable to consent) or involuntary (against the person's
will) is not euthanasia: it is murder. Hence, euthanasia
can be voluntary only”.
 Procedural decision
 Voluntary, non-voluntary and involuntary euthanasia can all
be further divided into passive or active variants.

Active euthanasia
refers to a physician painlessly putting to death some
persons suffering from incurable condition or diseases.

Passive euthanasia
refers to any act of allowing the patient to die, which
may include failing to provide necessary medication as
well as taking a patient off life support.
 Legal Status
 Some governments around the world have
legalized voluntary euthanasia but generally
it remains as a criminal homicide. In the
Netherlands and Belgium, where euthanasia
has been legalized, it still remains homicide
although it is not prosecuted and not
punishable if the perpetrator (the doctor)
meets certain legal exceptions.
In Islamic Point Of View
“men who celebrate the praises of Allah, standing, sitting, and lying
down on their sides, and contemplate the (wonders of ) creation in the
heavens and the earth, (with the thought): “Our Lord! Not for naught
Hast Thou created (all) this! Glory to Thee! Give us salvation from the
penalty of the fire.”
Qur’an 3:191

Euthanasia is the act or practice of ending the life of and individual

suffering from a terminal illness or an incurable condition, through
lethal injection or the suspension of extraordinary medical treatment.

this act is islamically forbidden for it encompasses a positive role on

the part of the physician to end the life of the patient and hasten his
death via lethal injection, electric shock, a sharp weapon or any other
way.

this is an act of killing, and killing is a major sin and thus forbidden in
Islam, the religion of pure mercy.
 The Islamic Code of Medical Ethics
(1981 p.67)
 In his/her defense of life, however, the Doctor is well
advised to realize his limit and not transgress it. If it is
scientifically certain that life cannot be restored, then it
is futile to diligently keep the patient in a vegetative
state by heroic means or to preserve the patient by
deep freezing or other artificial methods.

 It is the process of life that the doctor aims to the

maintain and not the process of dying. In any case,
the doctor shall not take a positive measure to
terminate the patient’s life”.
Karen Ann Quinlan
Karen Ann Quinlan was the first modern icon of the right-to-die
debate. The 21-year-old Quinlan collapsed at a party after
swallowing alcohol and tranquilizer valium on 14 April 1975. within
hours, she entered a coma from which she could never be recover.
Her parents, staunch Roman Catholics, knew their daughter would
not want to be kept alive by extraordinary means.
A year later, as Karen Lay in a “persistent vegetative state,”
the courts finally allowed her treatment to be stopped; but artificial
feeding was continued and she was maintained as a living corpse
until June 1985, when she eventually died of pneumonia (serious
disease which affects lungs and makes it difficult to breathe).
Her case spurred thousands of letter of sympathy and fuelled
the “right to die” movement. How many people need to die
degrading deaths before society learns a little humanity?