Euthanasia

Etymology and history of the term

The word euthanasia is made of two elements drawn from the Greek, the prefix have , “well”, and the word thanatos , “die”; it thus means literally good death, i.e. died under good conditions.

The word was invented by the Philosophe English Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626), and appears in a text of 1605: the office of the doctor is not only to restore health, but also to soften the pains and sufferings attached to the diseases; and that not only as this softening of the pain, considered as a perilous symptom, contributes and led to convalescence, but still in order to get to the patient, when there is no more hope, a soft and peaceful death; because it is not the least part of happiness than this euthanasia. But of our time the doctors, if they were jealous not to fail owe them, nor consequently with humanity, and to even learn their art more at bottom, they would not save any care to help failing them to leave this world with more softness and facility .

It is defined like “death happy” in the Dictionnaire of Trévoux (ED. 1771), which attests of its employment in French as of this century. Until the end of the 19th century it has this use of “softening of dead” (the “ Euthanasie or Medical care to get an easy death and without pain” ; William Munk 1888, translation 1889).

At the 19th century the direction inflects, initially, under the influence of the Eugénisme in the direction of a “soft” elimination of “nondesirable” populations, then of elimination of these populations without the direction of “good death” being retained. For this reason it integrates the whole of the means under consideration by the scientific or ideological eugenisms to prevent or limit the existence of these populations: forced sterilizations and abortions, enfermement, deportation, separation of the sexes, etc the culminating point of these practices known as of euthanasia, and their first realization with large scales, are the Programme Aktion T4 set up by the national-Socialist of the Third Reich in 1939, and which falls under the broader program of racial Hygiène of the Nazis, of which completion is the “Final solution”, the elimination planned of the Jews in the highest degree, but also of the Tziganes and other populations considered undesirable.

After the Second world war, the word is mainly associated with its employment euphemistic and fallacious of first half of the century, and for this reason negatively connoted. It is only in the decade 1970, and the framework of the fight against what one starts to name Therapeutic eagerness which one returns to an employment closer to the initial direction, while adding new meanings to him.

Since progress of medicine in the safeguarding and the prolongation of the life knew decisive progress, the question of the limits arose to pose with the practices of “maintenance of the life”. The public debate on this subject brought the medical profession, the philosophers and the theologists to discuss subject of the quality of the life, and rights for an human being to determine the moment when this quality degraded as much as it becomes acceptable and licit to put a term at its anguish and its suffering, and in fine led the States to legislate in these matters, within the framework of the legislative arsenal known in France like laws of Bioéthique .

The euthanasia like practice and concept

If the word is rather recent, the concept and the practice of the euthanasia are not a new problem and they are not as dependant as one often believes it in the developments of modern medicine. It is indeed enough to be seriously sick so that this question arises. The euthanasia is thus a persistent problem in which clash Idéologie S of various horizons.

In ancient Greece, the principle generally did not pose moral problems: the dominant design was that a loose living is not worthy to be lived, this is why Eugénisme (by exposure) and euthanasia could not in general shock.

However some, such Hippocrates, had a different design of the things and, in the oath which bears its name it is interdict with the doctors all the forms of assistances to the suicide:

I will abstain from any evil and any injustice. I will not give to anybody of the poison, if one asks some to me, nor do not take the initiative of a similar suggestion; similarly, I will not give to any woman an abortive pessaire

The euthanasia moreover was practiced by the Celts, at the Gaulois it is " the god with the maillet" , Sucellos which seems was the owner of these practices. In Armorican Brittany, especially in Vannetais, a “mallet blesses” ( Mel Béniguet ) was used until the XX ième century beginning to complete those whose death lasted for ever on the request for the family and under the authority of the priest and for some notable of the parish. The use of the " Mel Béniguet" was attested in Guénin, Locmariaquer, Carnac, Guern or Brec' h.

Typology

Forms of assistance to the end-of-life:

the active euthanasia indicates a voluntary act in order to shorten the life of the patient.
the euthanasia passivates consists in ceasing a curative treatment or to stop the use of instruments or products maintaining a patient in life and is distinguished from the active euthanasia by the fact that one uses no means hastening his death.
the indirect euthanasia (disputed name) consists of the administration of a product which is likely to result in death (analgesic or analgesics) without the sought-after goal being this death.
the assistance with the suicide which can take two form: assistance by supply of means and the Suicide assisted where, with the request express of a person not being in a position to carry out the gesture by itself, a third makes it in its place and places. In these two cases, it is necessary that the request emanates from the person, if not it is incentive with the suicide .

Conditions of this help to the end-of-life:

voluntary Euthanasia : when an individual with the mental and physical capacity to ask of the assistance to die and that it request ;
nonvoluntary Euthanasia , meaning 1: when an individual does not have any more the mental and physical capacity to require of the assistance to die but previously expressed such a will;
nonvoluntary Euthanasia , meaning 2: when an individual does not have any more the mental and physical capacity to ask of the assistance to die or to be opposed to it and that one be unaware of which would have been its will;
involuntary Euthanasia : carried out against the liking of an individual, this one being conscious and being opposed formally to this decision.

The last two cases properly do not arise from the euthanasia in a strict meaning, even if case 3 enters the widened meaning of “end of the therapeutic eagerness”. On the other hand the last case is very disputed, in particular on a penal level, and for the most recent legal affairs which took place in the countries having a liberal approach of the question, is only having led to imprisonments.

Legislation and practical legal

The majority of the States does not recognize or prohibits the euthanasia and the other forms of assistance to the end-of-life, but in much of them, in particular in Europe and North America, there exists an implicit or explicit tolerance against these practices, in so far as they are held within a regulated framework.

the euthanasia is authorized, under conditions, in certain European countries, like the Belgium and the Netherlands, for certain patients reached of terminal illness.
In Swiss, if the euthanasia remains prohibited, the suicide assisted on the other hand is authorized under the same conditions as for the two countries mentioned, by the means of Swiss association Exit. (Other Associations: Exit International, Dignitas, the Chrysalis…)
In France, if the law formally represses the euthanasia and the assisted suicide, between 1998 and 2005 the statutory texts and legislatures however widened the possibilities of suspension of the therapeutic eagerness and extended the rights of the patient “to a worthy end” ; and in practice legal, the majority of the businesses arising of these questions generally give place, since the beginning of the decade 2000, to Non-lieu X or sorrows symbolic systems.

See also: Legislation on the euthanasia by country

Animal euthanasia

Arguments for and against the euthanasia

Reserves and oppositions

Prohibited by many Religion S:

the man does not have his life: it is a gift (Christianisme and Islam for example);

risk of skid:

financial pressures on the patient because of the high cost of the care for the close relations;
financial pressures for poorest, which are likely “to prefer” to die quickly;
pressures morals on behalf of the close relations;
difficulty in changing opinion starting from a certain point (unconsciousness);
interference attends between the concepts of suffering of the patient and suffering of the entourage;
ideal to dissimulate a murder;

risk of drift:

Eugénisme, selection of the individuals compared to a design of the good life;
consequently, can become an instrument of social domination;
without counting the heirs who can benefit from it to accelerate a heritage;

uselessness: Part of the doctors estimates that progress as regards anti-pains and tranquillizing (palliative Soins) makes the euthanasia useless.
incapacity to decide, the decision can be taken by someone else.

Tolerances and acceptances

human dignity:

dying them in the modern societies is abandoned at the hospital and their sufferings are taken little into account by the doctors;
avoids the clandestinity of the gesture; in fact, the gesture being framed, avoids also the drifts;
the disease is socially perceived like a degradation;
the disease can involve deteriorations of psychic faculties (reason and will in particular) on which rest the values morals of the Occident;

fine of the suffering;
the Man is only holder of rights associated with its body, alone main of its life; it is the simple application of individual freedom. It must be the only one to decide on what it wants to do of its body but also of its spirit, i.e. of with the result that there exists as Homme.

Juridically, the human body, considered as a " thing sacrée" , is an element extrapatrimonial. it cannot thus be question of property of this one. This results from the principles of unavailability of the human body and the state of the people contained in the Civil code (Article 16 and S.).

freedom of choice of the patient, who knows better than whoever what it wishes.

That will also allow to avoid the therapeutic eagerness governed and prohibited by the law Kouchner of March 4th, 2002

very important or total dependence of the assistance of others.
feeling of social uselessness.
the disease is a test difficult to thus surmount not to find a solution with pathology is even harder.

Businesses having milked with the euthanasia

Justice being subjected to the secrecy of the instruction and the definition of the euthanasia being difficult, it will act here, people claiming authors of this practice and worried by justice for this reason.

Recall: the euthanasia is not condemned in all the countries!

on March 15th, 2007 in France, the jury of sat of the Dordogne condemned Doctor Laurence Tramois to one one-year suspended sentence, and discharged the nurse Chantal Chanel. In 2003, the doctor had prescribed and the nurse had managed a potassium lethal injection with Mrs. Druais, 65 years, a patient reached of a cancer of the pancreas in final phase, they since were accused of poisoning. The judges and sworn thus did not completely follow the prosecuting attorney Yves Squercioni who asked for heavier sorrows of principles: one one-year suspended sentence against the nurse and two one-year suspended sentences against the doctor. Defense had pled the payment while requiring of sworn to put an end to " the hypocrisie" surrounding according to it this societal debate. The public ministry wished as for him sorrows symbolic systems so that the principle of right is pointed out which prohibits a doctor from giving death.
In 2005, the case of Christine Malevre, condemned French nurse;
In 2003, the Business Vincent Humbert, deceased in France; (which accelerated besides the process of legislation in France.)
the business Terri Schiavo with the the United States.
the business Karen Anarchist Quinlan in the United States
At the European level, the European Court of the Human rights is shown very reticent with regard to the euthanasia. One can in particular note it in the business Diane Pretty C. the United Kingdom of April 29th, 2002, in which the Court refused to recognize any " right to the mort" by the means of art.2 CEDH, sanctioning the right to the life. Indeed, for the Court, this one could not be interpreted without distortion of language in a negative way, i.e. like conferring a right diametrically opposed, namely a right to die. More it would not know to confer a right to self-determination in the sense that it would give to any individual the right to choose death rather than the life. Consequently, it is not possible to deduce from art.2 CEDH a right to die, that it is hand of a third or with the assistance of a public authority.

Euthanasia and religion

Islam

In the Islamic religion, the man represents the divine work most important and most complex. He is the creature which carries the divine print and which represents its capacity on the ground.

The euthanasia activates is juridically prohibited ( shar' year ), because it corresponds to a murder made by the doctor, even when it acts at the request of the patient, by intending to shorten its suffering. The doctor cannot be miséricordieux towards the patient than God who gave him the life and which includes it to him under the conditions that he wants. The only allowed thing is to let the patient die naturally.

The euthanasia passivates cannot be prohibited, in these precise cases, owing to the fact that the majority of the Moslem lawyers does not impose the medical care even in cases where the cure is hoped for. They considered that to look after itself belonged to the allowed (mubâh) , and by no means of the obligatory .

Catholic religion

For the Catholicism, of which the doctrines on this subject was clarified by the encyclical letter Evangelium vitae ( the Gospel of the life ) of the pope Jean-Paul II in 1995, the euthanasia is in direct opposition with the 6th command: You will not kill (Exodus XX/13). Consequently, any form of euthanasia is prohibited.

(...) the euthanasia thus crim that no human law can claim to legitimate. Laws of this nature, not only do not create any obligation for the conscience, but they involve a serious and precise obligation to be opposed to it by the conscientious objection . Evangelium vitae , n°73

The Vatican reaffirmed in September 2007 that the food of the patients in a " state végétatif" was " obligatoire" , in connection with the case of Terri Schiavo, American in the coma during 15 years and deceased in 2005 after its food had been stopped

On the other hand, the Therapeutic eagerness is him also refused: It is necessary to distinguish from the euthanasia the decision to give up the therapeutic eagerness what is called, i.e. with certain medical interventions which are not appropriate any more for the real situation of the patient, because they are from now on disproportionate compared to the results which one could expect or because they are too heavy for him and for his family. In these situations, when death is announced imminent and inevitable, one can in conscience give up treatments which would get only one precarious and painful deferment of the life, without however stopping the care due to the patient in such a case Evangelium vitae , n°65

Other religions

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