Euthanasia in Ancient Socities essays

Euthanasia in Ancient Socities essays Life is a precious gift that should be cherished, preserved, and enhanced in every way possible. But when the potential for meaningful, joyful, desirable life has been exhausted and every effort made to prevent the inevitable, should we make it legally possible for the merciful to show mercy to those who request intervention to end their intolerable suffering. Euthanasia is the practice of mercifully ending a persons life in order to release the person from an incurable disease, intolerable suffering, or undignified death. The word euthanasia derives from the Greek word thanatos death and eu meaning easy it originally referred to intentional mercy killing. When medical advances made prolonging the lives of the dying or comatose patient possible the term euthanasia was also applied to a lack of action to prevent death. Euthanasia can be active or passive. Active euthanasia involves painlessly putting individuals to death for merciful reasons, as when a doctor administers a lethal dose of medication to a patient. Passive euthanasia involves not doing something to prevent death for example when a doctor refrains from using an artificial respirator to keep alive a terminally ill patient. Euthanasia can also be voluntary or involuntary. Voluntary euthanasia is when a person asks to die. In voluntary euthanasia refers to ending the life of a person who is not mentally competent to make an informal request to die, such as a comatose patient. Various groups or societies through out history have accepted euthanasia in various forms. In ancient Greece and Rome euthanasia was considered permissible in some situations. For example in the Greek city of Sparta newborns with severe birth defects were put to death. Voluntary euthanasia for the elderly was approved as custom for the elderly in some ancient societies. However as Christianity developed, euthanasia became morally and ethically abhorrent and was...