Dignity of Human Life: Euthanasia

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Dignity of Human Life Euthanasia

• Amanda Dougherty, Jillian Corey,
• Franny Downing, Johnny Yam

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Presentation Outline

• Play brief clip addressing issue from film
  Million Dollar Baby
• Define euthanasia and related terms
• Explain the history and current events regarding
  this issue
• Explain the teachings of the Catholic church
  today regarding this issue
• Present two real-life cases of this issue in the
  U.S.

• VI. Present arguments for both pro and con
• VII. Debate issue in class
• VIII. Discuss real-life cases

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Ethical Questions

• How do we decide which human lives have value?
• How do we determine the role of medical
  technology in prolonging human life?
• What defines unbearable suffering and how do we
  decide if this is a right to die?

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Goals

• To better understand the definition of
  euthanasia
• To know the history and current events regarding
  this issue
• To understand the current Catholic teaching
• To be able to base ones opinion regarding
  euthanasia on real-life examples as support

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What is Euthanasia?

• The word "euthanasia" comes from the Greek --
  "eu" meaning "goodly or well" "thanatos"
  meaning "death." So, euthanasia is literally the
  "good death."
• Hyperdictionary.com defines euthanasia as the
  act of killing someone painlessly (especially
  someone suffering from an incurable illness)
• The broad term euthanasia has two main
  subcategories
• Passive euthanasia - withdrawing or withholding
  of extraordinary means used to prolong life
• Active euthanasia - The active acceleration of a
  "good" death by use of drugs etc, whether by
  oneself or with the aid of a doctor.

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What is the history of Euthanasia?

• About 400 B.C. - The Hippocratic Oath (By the
  "Father of Medicine' Greek physician Hippocrates)
  
• "I will give no deadly medicine to any one if
  asked, nor suggest any such counsel"
• From the 14th to 20th Centuries, English Common
  Law states that "for over 700 years, the Anglo
  American common law tradition has punished or
  otherwise disapproved of both suicide and
  assisting suicide."

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What is the history of euthanasia?

• 1828 - Earliest American statute passed
  explicitly to outlaw assisting suicide
• 1939 Nazi Germany In October of 1939, Hitler
  ordered widespread "mercy killing" of the sick
  and disabled. Code named "Aktion T 4," the Nazi
  euthanasia program to eliminate "life unworthy of
  life" at first focused on newborns and very young
  children. Midwives and doctors were required to
  register children up to age three who showed
  symptoms of mental retardation, physical
  deformity, or other symptoms included on a
  questionnaire from the Reich Health Ministry."

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What is the history of euthanasia?

• 1975 Karen Ann Quinlan, 21, stopped breathing for
  at least two 15-minute periods, resulting in
  severe brain damage her parents, after being
  denied permission to remove her ventilator, took
  their plea to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the
  court ruled in favor of the Quinlans on the basis
  of a "constitutional right of privacy the term
  to die with dignity was first introduced in
  this case.
• 1999 Dr. Jack Kevorkian sentenced to a 10-25 year
  prison term for giving a lethal injection to
  Thomas Youk
• 2000 The Netherlands legalizes euthanasia.
• 2002 Belgium legalizes euthanasia.

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How is Euthanasia practiced today?

• All doctors required to take the Hippocratic
  oath, which states that I will prescribe regimen
  for the good of my patients according to my
  ability and my judgment and never do harm to
  anyone. To please no one will I prescribe a
  deadly drug nor give advice which may cause his
  death.
• Federal Patients Self-Determination Act,
  effective in 1991, requires health-care
  facilities to notify competent adult patients of
  their right to accept or refuse medical treatment

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How is euthanasia practiced today?

• The world medical community considers euthanasia
  to be in conflict with basic ethical principles
  of medical practice. The World Medical
  Association, with members representing medical
  associations (including the American Medical
  Association) from eighty-two countries, has
  adopted strong resolutions condemning both
  practices and urging all national medical
  associations and physicians to refrain from
  participating in them even if national law allows
  or decriminalizes the practices

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How is euthanasia practiced today?

• Justified Euthanasia (under Dutch Law) requires
  that several steps be taken preceding procedure
• the patient makes a voluntary, informed request
• the patient is suffering unbearably with no
  prospect of improvement
• the physician consults with another physician who
  agrees
• the physician performing the procedure carefully
  review the patients condition
• This is debated because 82 countries worldwide
  passed legislation banning euthanasia and
  assisted suicide. As a result of these
  legislations, many people come to the Netherlands
  and Belgium to have the procedure performed.

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What do Catholics believe? We are called to
provide basic means of sustenance such as food
and water unless they are doing more harm than
good to a patient, or useless because the
patients death is imminent. -Pope John Paul

• .

• The Catholic Church is currently opposed to
  Euthanasia. The reasoning behind this stance is
  the belief that
• the sacredness of life must be preserved at
  all costs
• All life is God-given
• Birth and death are part of the life processes
  which God has created
• No human being has the authority to take the life
  of an innocent person, even if that person wants
  to die

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Catholic Teaching

• Excerpt from the Catechism of the Catholic Church
  on Euthanasia
• 2277 ...Thus an act or omission which, of itself
  or by intention, causes death in order to
  eliminate suffering constitutes a murder gravely
  contrary to the dignity of the human person and
  to the respect due to the living God, his
  Creator....
• 2278 Discontinuing medical procedures that are
  burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary, or
  disproportionate to the expected outcome can be
  legitimate

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Catholic Teaching

• 2279 Even if death is thought imminent, the
  ordinary care owed to a sick person cannot be
  legitimately interrupted. The use of painkillers
  to alleviate the sufferings of the dying, even at
  the risk of shortening their days, can be morally
  in conformity with human dignity if death is not
  willed as either an end or a means, but only
  foreseen and tolerated as inevitable. Palliative
  care is a special form of disinterested charity.
  As such it should be encouraged.

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Catholic Teaching

• 2280....It is God who remains the sovereign
  Master of life. We are obliged to accept life
  gratefully and preserve it for his honor and the
  salvation of our souls. We are stewards, not
  owners, of the life God has entrusted to us. It
  is not ours to dispose of.
• 2281 Suicide contradicts the natural inclination
  of the human being to preserve and perpetuate his
  life. It is gravely contrary to the just love of
  self. It likewise offends love of neighbor
  because it unjustly breaks the ties of solidarity
  with family, nation, and other human societies to
  which we continue to have obligations. Suicide is
  contrary to love for the living God.

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Real-Life Case Terri Shiavo

• On February 25, 1990, she experienced a cardiac
  arrest.
• 41-year-old disabled women in Florida, who was
  euthanized on March 31, 2005.
• Louis Finkelstein Institute for Religious and
  Social Studies conducted a survey concerning
  Terri Schiavo among 851 physicians in the U.S.
  right before her death.
• 77 said that it was medically ethical to remove
  her feeding tube.
• 23 said it was not medically ethical to remove
  her feeding tube.

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Real-Life Case Karen Ann Quinlan

• On April 15, 1975, Karen Ann Quinlan stopped
  breathing for at least two 15-minute periods,
  resulting in severe brain damage
• This 21-year-old woman was euthanized in New
  Jersey in 1976.

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Pro Arguments

• The right to die is a justified human right
• The 1975 U.S. Supreme court ruling on the Quinlan
  case, guaranteed patient the constitutional
  right to privacy which justified refusal of
  treatment resulting in patients death.
• People should not be forced to stay alive.
• After his patient, 25 year-old 42 lb, Maria,
  requested physician-assisted suicide several
  times, he acquiesced. He was tried for murder,
  but released after the showing of a home video
  demonstrating that her life was unbearable.

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Con Arguments

• Euthanasia will become non-voluntary
• The case of Terri Schiavo was especially
  controversial because Shiavo was unable to
  express her opinion regarding her euthanasia
• Euthanasia is a rejection of the importance and
  value of human life.
• The Catechism of the Catholic Church emphasizes
  the value of human life above all else

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It is impossible that anything so natural, so
necessary, and so universal as death, should ever
have been designed by Providence as an evil to
mankind.

• - Jonathan Swift

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Sources

• http//encarta.msn.com/text_761562836_0/Euthanasia
  .html
• http//www.halpc.org/ollie/hippocratic.oath.html
• http//www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cf
  aith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19800505_euthanas
  ia_en.html
• http//www.euthanasia.com