|1 |It is good news that Alejandro Amenabar’s Spanish film “Mar adentro” (The Sea Inside) is creating a debate about euthanasia. | | | |Amenabar’s “Mar adentro” portrays a physically paralysed patient who needs the help of someone to cause his own death. In fact,| | | |the problem of euthanasia has a long history of philosophical discussion. On the whole, ancient Greek thinkers seem to have | | | |favoured euthanasia, even though they opposed suicide. An exception is Hippocrates who in his oath states that “I will not | | | |prescribe a deadly drug to please someone, nor give advice that may cause his death.
” The entire oath places emphasis on the |5 | | |value of preserving life and in putting the good of patients above the private interests of physicians. These two aspects of | | | |the oath make it an important creed for many health care workers today. In medieval times, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim | | | |philosophers opposed active euthanasia, although the Christian Church has tolerated passive euthanasia. | | | | | | | | |10 | | | | | |2 |The atrocities perpetrated by the Nazi regime included the so called “euthanasia programme” which allowed the systematic mass | | | |murder.
Since then the word euthanasia is associated with negative feelings. During the past decade, the debate about legalized| | | |euthanasia has grown in many countries. In the nineteen seventies and eighties a series of court cases in The Netherlands |15 | | |culminated in agreement being reached between the legal and medical authorities to ensure that no physician would be prosecuted| | | |for assisting a patient to die as long as certain guidelines were strictly adhered to. In 2001, The Netherlands has become the | | | |first country in the world to legalise euthanasia.
The definition under Dutch law is narrower – it means the termination of | | | |life by a doctor at the express and voluntary wish of a patient. It is not a condition that the patient is terminally ill or | | | |that the suffering is physical. |20 | |3 |In 1997 the Swiss federal government commissioned a working group to examine the issue of euthanasia, which concluded that | | | |euthanasia remain illegal; however, most of the members suggested legalizing cases in which a judge was satisfied that |25 | | |euthanasia followed the insistent request of a competent, incurable, and terminally ill patient in intractable suffering.
| | | |Rather than authorizing physicians to commit euthanasia. Swiss law instead permits private suicide facilitation and physicians | | | |are allowed to prescribe or supply a drug in lethal dose. The regulations are the most open, in that the law requires neither a| | | |medical second opinion nor the existence of a terminal illness as prerequisite to assistance in dying. In September 2002 the | | | |Belgian Parliament legalized euthanasia after an extensive discussion. The Belgian euthanasia law is more far-reaching than its|30 | | |Dutch counterpart.
It establishes different procedures for terminally-ill patients and patients with incurable illnesses who | | | |still have many years to live. | | | | | | | | | | | | |35 | |4 |The euthanasia controversy is part of a larger issue concerning the right to die. The conventional doctrine sustains that | | | |passive euthanasia is morally permissible in certain situations, but active euthanasia is never morally permissible. However, | | | |in 1975 Rachels broke ground by arguing that in those situations in which passive euthanasia is permissible, there can be no | | | |morally sound reason for prohibiting active euthanasia.
The ethical issue of euthanasia, or mercy killing, concerns whether it |40 | | |is morally permissible for a third party to end the life of a terminally ill patient who is in intense suffering. Euthanasia | | | |itself is also far more than a simple moral “yes” or “no”, “active” and “passive” euthanasia, or between mercy killing and | | | |deliberately letting someone die. It is controversial because it brings into focus and conflict some very powerful and | | | |competing values. Certainly one of society’s traditional attitudes, expressed morally, legally, philosophically, and | | | |religiously is that human life merits special protection.
The controversy is between protection of human life and the right to |45 | | |decisional autonomy, and as well raises the question of the extent to which the criminal law should be used to enforce | | | |particular moral positions. So far the discussion has been based on perspectives of medical professionals, academics, and | | | |lawyers. Now, it is time for consumer opinions and patients’ subjective experiences about this complex issue. | | | | | | | |[extract from http://www. bmj. com/cgi/eletters/329/7470/864-a#77836, Faustino R Perez-Lopez, Professor of Obstetrics and |50 | | |Gynaecology University of Zaragoza] |
Read passage B and then answer Questions 1-5 ON A PIECE OF FOOLSCAP PAPER. From paragraph 1 1. What is the meaning of Euthanasia as shown in the Spanish film “Mar adentro”? [2] 2. What do you think that the below two words mean in the context of paragraph 1? i) ‘Oath’ (line 6)[1] ii) ‘Creed’ (line 10)[1] From paragraph 2 3. Write down a word of your own to replace the word, “prosecuted” [line19] in this paragraph. [1] From paragraph 2 and 3 4. Write down the differences in the way these three countries deal with euthanasia.
|a |The Dutch law allows a patient’s desire to die with the help of a doctor. However|[1] | |b |The Swiss law allows suicide facilities where doctors are permitted to give a drug in a lethal dose. The laws do not |[1] | | |require| | |c) |The Belgian law legalized euthanasia. However, their laws are more specific than |[1] | | |the Dutch… | | From paragraph 4 5. “the right to decisional autonomy” [line 49-50] Explain what this phrase means without using the words in italics. [2].