Euthanasia Detailed Plan – Original
What are the barriers to the legalisation of Euthanasia in the UK?
Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................................... 2
What is euthanasia?....................................................................................................................................................2
Types of euthanasia.....................................................................................................................................................2
Methodology...............................................................................................................................................................2
My aims and objectives...............................................................................................................................................3
What are the barriers restricting euthanasia being legalised?........................................................................................3
Euthanasia will lead to the start of a slippery slope....................................................................................................4
Devalues human life....................................................................................................................................................4
Affects doctor-patient relationship and alters doctor’s responsibilities......................................................................5
Against the sanctity of life...........................................................................................................................................5
Benefits of legalising euthanasia.....................................................................................................................................6
Right to die.................................................................................................................................................................. 7
Frees up medical resources.........................................................................................................................................7
Euthanasia is a part of our palliative care system already...........................................................................................8
Professional opinions on euthanasia...............................................................................................................................9
Professional opinions - doctors.................................................................................................................................10
Public opinion – General public.................................................................................................................................10
How it will affect our palliative care..............................................................................................................................11
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................................................... 12
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, Euthanasia Detailed Plan – Original
Introduction
The world we live in is one full of diseases and illnesses. There comes a time in an individual’s life where such illnesses can be
inflicting great pain on them, and it can come to a point where this pain is unbearable. When they have no will of putting up with
this pain, they resort to a drastic solution: euthanasia.
What is euthanasia?
“Euthanasia is the act of deliberately ending a person’s life to relieve suffering” as defined by the NHS website. 1 The
word euthanasia comes from the Greek word “euthanatos”, meaning “good death”. The idea of euthanasia is to give
one a relatively good death, instead of a slow, painful and undignified one. 2
An example of euthanasia could be that of a doctor administering a lethal dose of a drug that a terminally ill patient
may otherwise not need, doing so with the intent of ending the patient’s life. 3
We see this in practice within the Dr. Cox and Lilian case – Lilian Boyes suffered from arthritis and was in a significant
amount of pain. She asked her consultant, Dr. Cox, to end her life. He Injected a lethal dose of potassium chloride,
which led to her death. 4
Types of euthanasia
There are three types of euthanasia - active euthanasia, passive euthanasia, and physician-assisted suicide. 5 6
Active euthanasia – You do something with the intent of ending someone’s life. An example of this can be seen in the
Dr. Cox and Lillian case, which I mentioned previously.
Passive euthanasia – You do something that leads to a patient’s death. For example, withdrawing or withholding
treatment like CPR for resuscitation or a tracheostomy to allow the patient to breathe.
Physician-assisted suicide – A doctor providing a patient with a treatment that will end their life. The doctor doesn’t
give them the drug. The patient self-administers.
Active and physician-assisted euthanasia are illegal. Passive euthanasia is not illegal as it is deemed good clinical
practice, and is only legal when it is done per the patient’s best interest. 7
Methodology
I will split this essay into 4 parts with each part addressing different ideas surrounding my topic. These sections within
my essay will help pick apart the debate of whether euthanasia should be legalised and conclusively provide an answer
to the question.
I will be taking into account the medical, ethical, practical, and religious barriers, due to which, euthanasia should or
shouldn’t be legalised, and deciding on whether the benefits outweigh the negatives.
I will be using a range of sources, such as journal articles, YouTube videos, fact files, debate transcripts, etc.
1
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/euthanasia-and-assisted-suicide/
2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthanasia
3
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/euthanasia-and-assisted-suicide/
4
https://jme.bmj.com/content/medethics/23/6/368.full.pdf
5
https://youtu.be/1dIU1YhZX94
6
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z3fbwmn/revision/2
7
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthanasia_in_the_United_Kingdom#:~:text=appropriate%20evening%20journals.-,Double
%20effect%20doctrine,physician%20that%20caused%20the%20death.
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, Euthanasia Detailed Plan – Original
My aims and objectives
The topic of legalising euthanasia in the UK has been one of great controversy, debated to even a parliamentary level. I
will identify all the positive and negative factors of legalising euthanasia, and establish why it is not currently legal.
I aim to then decide whether or not euthanasia is beneficial to the palliative care system, to the point where it should
be legalised in the UK.
What are the barriers restricting euthanasia being
legalised?
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, Euthanasia Detailed Plan – Original
Euthanasia will lead to the start of a slippery slope
Voluntary euthanasia could be legalised as a medical practice, but how much time is there until euthanasia becomes
involuntary? The acceptance of certain practices which are harmless in their nature (for example physician-assisted
euthanasia) could result in the acceptance of a practice which isn’t in fact acceptable (such as non-voluntary
euthanasia). With a chain reaction resulting in an undesired end, this argument is used to reject an idea. 8
The slippery slope argument, in regards to euthanasia, is the idea that legalising euthanasia as a voluntary act could
lead to non-voluntary euthanasia. To define some terms, voluntary euthanasia is where a person asks for their life to be
ended, as opposed to non-voluntary euthanasia, where a doctor or family member decides it is in the patient’s best
interest to end their life, where the patient cannot make their wishes known or make a decision. 9
We can see the slippery slope in the case of a patient in the Netherlands. Euthanasia was legalised in the Netherlands in
2002. Although the patient had previously expressed interest in euthanasia, she wanted to decide the right time for her
death. There was no clear consent she wanted to be euthanised, however, the doctor claimed he was acting in the best
interest of the patient who suffered from dementia - this was ruled to violate Dutch laws. 10 However, the doctor was
acquitted of all charges.
It can be argued that this argument is invalid due to a very scarce number of cases and evidence that euthanasia can be
affected by a slippery slope. As one article states “It is, of course, easier to assert the existence of a slippery slope than
to prove that it exists.” 11
In countries where euthanasia was legalised for terminally ill patients, euthanasia has slowly been made legal for more
and more audiences. Initially, euthanasia was only legal for those who were terminally ill, but it has since moved on to
be legalised for those with chronic illnesses, to those with psychological illnesses. 12 This has been permitted solely due
to defends of the human right to life and death but we can only see this as legalised murder.
Devalues human life
An idea conveyed by euthanasia is that ‘death is better than being disabled or sick’. It brings around the concept that a
life of sickness and disability is not a life worth living and it devalues the life of people who go through such. The lives of
the disabled and sick have been seen as inferior by society for a long time. Even back in the 19 th century, it was seen as
such by Hitler, who tried to cleanse society from disabled people by a euthanasia program. 13 By legalising euthanasia,
we will not only be devaluing the lives of the disabled and sick, but we would be following in the footsteps of a
notorious man such as Hitler, legalising a medical practice that goes against our values of treating all life equally.
It can however seem that legalising the practice of euthanasia in palliative care doesn’t devalue human life. Being
euthanized is solely the choice of the patient, and consent must be taken. The process of euthanasia could be legalised
strictly so that only dying patients can access it, meaning most disabilities wouldn’t come under such a category.
However, looking at Belgium, a country that also has legalised euthanasia, even with restrictions on who can access
euthanasia, over some time, the idea of assisted suicide is made societally acceptable. Life is therefore devalued, as it
can still be seen that “some lives are not worth living”. 14 The lives of those who euthanasia is made accessible to are
devalued as it shows their lives are worth not living, and such should not be normalised in society.
8
https://www.txstate.edu/philosophy/resources/fallacy-definitions/Slippery-Slope.html
9
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z3fbwmn/revision/2
10
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-49660525
11
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3185895/#:~:text=It%20is%2C%20of%20course%2C%20easier,has
%20become%20steadily%20more%20permissive.
12
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3185895/
13
https://www.ushmm.org/information/exhibitions/online-exhibitions/special-focus/nazi-persecution-of-the-disabled
14
https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/letters/legalised-euthanasia-devalues-all-life-1558100
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