Unit 3: Value of Human Life

Euthanasia: Introduction

Defining Euthanasia

The word Euthanasia comes from the Greek: "eu" (good) and "thanatos" (death). It literally means "good death."

Euthanasia, or "mercy killing," is the act of intentionally ending a person's life to relieve them of incurable disease or unbearable suffering.

It is crucial to distinguish Euthanasia from Suicide:

• Suicide: A person ends their *own* life.
• Euthanasia: A *second party* (usually a doctor) performs the action that ends the person's life.
• Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS): A related concept where a doctor *provides the means* (e.g., a prescription for a lethal dose), but the patient *takes the final action themselves*.

Sanctity of Life vs. Quality of Life

This unit's debate centers on the conflict between two principles:

1. Sanctity of Life: The idea that *all* human life is sacred and has intrinsic value, regardless of its condition. (See Unit 2).
2. Quality of Life: The idea that the *value* of life depends on its quality. A life of unbearable, irremediable pain, or a life without consciousness (e.g., a persistent vegetative state), may be considered not worth living.

Proponents of euthanasia argue that Autonomy (the right to choose one's own death) and Quality of Life can outweigh the Sanctity of Life.

Types of Euthanasia

Euthanasia is classified using two different criteria, which can be combined.

Classification by Patient's Consent

1. Voluntary Euthanasia: The patient is mentally competent, understands their situation, and explicitly and repeatedly requests to die. This is based on the principle of autonomy.
2. Non-Voluntary Euthanasia: The patient is *incompetent* (e.g., in a coma, a newborn with a severe defect, severe dementia) and cannot make a decision. The decision is made by a proxy (like a family member or doctor) based on the patient's "best interests" or a living will.
3. Involuntary Euthanasia: The patient is competent but does *not* want to die, and is killed anyway. This is universally condemned as murder.

Classification by Method

1. Active Euthanasia: Involves a direct *action* to end the patient's life. This is an act of "killing."
   (Example: A doctor administering a lethal injection.)
2. Passive Euthanasia: Involves *withholding or withdrawing* life-sustaining treatment, allowing the patient to die from their underlying condition. This is an act of "letting die."
   (Example: A doctor turning off a ventilator or not starting a course of antibiotics for a new infection.)

The Four Main Categories

By combining these, we get four main categories in the debate:

	Active (Killing)	Passive (Letting Die)
Voluntary	Active Voluntary Euthanasia (Patient asks for a lethal injection)	Passive Voluntary Euthanasia (Patient asks to have their ventilator removed)
Non-Voluntary	Active Non-Voluntary Euthanasia (Giving a lethal injection to a patient in a coma)	Passive Non-Voluntary Euthanasia (Removing a feeding tube from a patient in a coma)