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EUTHANASIAADEFINITION
Euthanasia
As the main definition states Euthanasia is the ‘desire to end ones life voluntarily due to medical illness’. However what one must take into account is that when one looks into the actual medical definition/s of Euthanasia, one can come to notice that there are two forms of Euthanasia or Assisted Suicide. These mainly consist of Voluntary Euthanasia and Non-Voluntarily Euthanasia, both of which have
diverse effects on the psyche of the individual which the med ical practitioner or family member is dealing with.
VOLUNTARY EUTHANASIA
In itself, Voluntary Euthanasia means that the individual is willing and wants to end his or her life due to the suffering and pain that they have been enduring. This is what most individuals refer to when debating Euthanasia between themselves.
Voluntary Euthanasia includes cases of:
• asking for help with dying • refusing burdensome medical treatment 1 • asking for medical treatment to be stopped, or life support machines to be switched off • refusing to eat • simply deciding to die
NON-VOLUNTARY EUTHANASIA
This form of Euthanasia, has rarely cropped up in the ongoing national debate. Though it is one that legislators, medical practitioners, politicians and people who will be submitting others to it need to take into consideration even more so when one is dealing with the life of a vulnerable person.
Non-Voluntary Euthanasia is normally defined as: ‘a person cannot
1Refusing Burdensome medical treatment is usually the most common reason given by individuals who opt for Euthanasia. In doing so it is their belief that they will be relieved of living in pain.
make a decision or cannot make their wishes known and accordingly it is their next of kin who decide as to whether they should end the patient’s life.’ 2
The latter form includes cases where:
• the person is in a coma • the person is too young (e.g. a very young baby) • the person is senile • the person is mentally retarded to a very severe extent • the person is severely brain damaged • the person is mentally disturbed in such a way that they should be protected from themselves 3
2 3
Reference: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/euthanasia/overview/volinvol.shtml Ibid.
