Saturday 27 October 2012

Classification of euthanasia


In this post I want to explain to you how euthanasia is dived, classification of euthanasia and what the difference is.
Euthanasia may be classified according to whether a person gives informed consent into three types: voluntary, non-voluntary and involuntary.
Voluntary Euthanasia refers to the action taken by the physician and the patient, who both agree (with informed consent) to end the patient's life.
Involuntary Euthanasia refers to a third party taking a patient's life without the informed consent of the patient. This is commonly practiced in veterinary medicine when animals are "put down" or "put to sleep." In modern medicine, it could conceivably be applied to the act of taking a terminally ill, suffering patient's life who has lost all mental capacity to make his/her own decisions.

Also Known As: physician-assisted death, physician-assisted suicide, mercy killing

Indirect-Providing treatment (usually to reduce pain) that has the foreseeable side effect of causing the patient to die sooner. The patient dies sooner as a side effect of giving a medical treatment given to relieve pain or improve end-of-life symptoms. Indirect or passive euthanasia are not prohibited in most countries, while direct or active euthanasia is prohibited; these are considered by some to be incorrect terms because they are not really types of euthanasia.

Passive-Involves withdrawing or withholding life-prolonging medical treatment with the intention to hasten death in the patient's interests because of their expected negative quality of life.
Distinguishing Passive from Active Euthanasia
Passive euthanasia is letting someone die.
Active euthanasia is doing something that kills them.
This distinction between active and passive euthanasia is thought to be crucial for medical ethics. The idea is that it is permissible, at least in some cases, to withhold treatment and allow a patient to die, but it is never permissible to take any direct action designed to kill the patient.
Non-Voluntary- This is where the person is unable to ask for euthanasia (perhaps they are unconscious or otherwise unable to communicate), or to make a meaningful choice between living and dying and an appropriate person takes the decision on their behalf, perhaps in accordance with their living will, or previously expressed wishes.
Situations in which the person cannot make a decision or cannot make their wishes known, includes cases where:
The person is in a coma.
The person is too young (e.g. a very young baby).
The person is senile.
The person is mentally retarded to a very severe extent.
The person is severely brain damaged.
The person is mentally disturbed in such a way that they should be protected from themselves.

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