Euthanasia: An Analysis

Euthanasia
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Euthanasia
Euthanasia, also referred to as physician-assisted suicide, is the intentional process of ending a patient's life to reduce their suffering or prevent further pain caused by either a terminal illness, genetic disorder, or a deeply traumatizing event. There is a great need to distinguish between euthanasia and assisted suicide as two different concepts are widely misunderstood and interchanged. Euthanasia refers to ending a person's life by the doctor or physician, which is a painless method, as long as there is an agreement between the patient and the immediate family. On the other hand, assisted suicide is a process in which the doctor assists the patient to end their life, with or without the consent of the immediate family. 
Euthanasia as a pain-ending alternative to palliative care is a highly contentious issue and has been banned by law in several countries. The few countries that it has been approved by law are regarded as a necessary intervention to prevent further suffering. In Argentina, for example, the Senate in 2012 signed into law a bill that enabled patients with lifelong or terminal symptoms to intentionally reject treatments and opt for physician-related death instead. This law, referred to as the law of dignified death, was promulgated on 24th May 2012 (Fuertes, 2012). In the US, for example, a patient is legally within their rights to refuse treatment, even though the loss of treatment would result in their death as long as the patient is found to be of sound mind and well informed of his options by a professional health practitioner (Brazier, 2018). In the Netherlands, mercy killing was decriminalized by law in 2001. It was allowed as a method of ending suffering for "patients who had unsuccessfully tried all other methods of palliative care." 
Most religions are against euthanasia since they consider human life sacred and should not be taken away since God gave it. The Roman Catholic has been strongly condemned to euthanasia. On the other hand, Islam forbids any form of suicide; hence they are strongly against this process. Buddhists also argue that euthanasia demolishes the Karma of a patient and a doctor.
There are various reasons for expanding the moral justification of homicide in cases of euthanasia. The double-effect principle states that doing a morally good thing with a bad side effect is ethically alright if the bad side effect was not intended. Four factors support this statement; the act itself must be appropriate. The only thing that one can think of is the good act, not the foreseen but the unintended bad effect. Also, the good effect ought to be achieved independently from the bad effect; therefore, the bad result should not be a means of achieving a good result. The unintended but foreseen bad effect must be proportionate to the cause. Therefore, bad results can be morally right if they are only the side effects of a good action.
Classification
Euthanasia can be broadly classified depending on the patient's consent and the procedural guidelines in administering the killing. Based on the concept of consent by the patient, euthanasia can be classified as either voluntary or non-voluntary. V...