Although Peruvian law prohibits euthanasia, a court ruled in February in favor of a request by Ana Estrada, 44, a psychologist who has suffered from a degenerative disease for three decades and claims a right to euthanasia. Active euthanasia is illegal in the UK. Anyone who assists in suicide is breaking the law and can be found guilty of aiding or attempting suicide. [106] [107] [108] Between 2003 and 2006, Lord Joffe made four attempts to introduce bills that would have legalized voluntary euthanasia – all of which were rejected by the British Parliament. [109] Currently, Dr. Nigel Cox is the only British doctor convicted of attempted euthanasia. In 1992, he was given a 12-month suspended sentence. [110] The Belgian Parliament legalized euthanasia on May 28, 2002. [13] [14] In the United States, legal and ethical debates about euthanasia have become more prominent in the case of Karen Ann Quinlan, who fell into a coma after allegedly mixing sedatives with alcohol, and survived biologically for 9 years in a “persistent vegetative state,” even after the New Jersey Supreme Court agreed to remove her from a ventilator. This case has sparked widespread public concern about “life not worth living” and the possibility of at least voluntary euthanasia if it could be determined that the patient would not have wanted to be in that state. [17] In April 2019, New Jersey became the 7th U.S. state to allow euthanasia after the Governor of New Jersey signed the law and went into effect on August 1, 2019. [4] Florencia Salgueiro, an activist and member of Empatía Uruguay, an organization that promotes the decriminalization of euthanasia, said the discussion was crucial for the future because she had seen her grandfather, uncle and father succumb to the devastation of ALS – without being able to do anything about it.
Adriana González, a lawyer in the country`s first legal euthanasia case, said the last-minute cancellation was “an act of torture.” Other NGOs working for and against various policies related to euthanasia can be found around the world. Among the promoters, perhaps the main NGO is the British Dignity in Dying, the successor to the (voluntary) euthanasia society. [125] In addition to professional and religious groups, there are NGOs in various countries that speak out against euthanasia.[126] Palliative sedation, in which people can ask to be kept under deep sedation until they die, is allowed in many countries, including the Netherlands and France – is not euthanasia. Ostropolsky, an experienced lawyer, filters everything through law and jurisprudence – this is his way of dealing with the abyss. On May 30, he wrote a lengthy statement on his Facebook account to draw the attention of Argentine lawmakers and the international community to the urgent need to pass a law on euthanasia in his country. In Mexico, active euthanasia is illegal, but since January 7, 2008, the law allows terminally ill people – or the closest relatives if they are unconscious – to refuse medication or additional medical treatment to prolong life (also known as passive euthanasia) in Mexico City,[72] in the central state of Aguascalientes (since January 6, 2008). April 2009)[73] and since September 1, 2009 in the western state of Michoacán. [74] A similar law extending the same provisions at the national level was approved by the Senate,[75] and an initiative to decriminalize active euthanasia entered the same legislative chamber on April 13, 2007. [76] But some critics take a moral stance against euthanasia and assisted suicide, claiming that life is given by God and that only God can take it, the BBC says. Others believe that laws allowing euthanasia could be abused and that people who did not want to die could be killed.
Van der Heide said that while she could not comment on Pothoven`s case, it was possible for minors over the age of 12 to request euthanasia or assisted suicide in the Netherlands under certain conditions. Israeli criminal law prohibits causing the death of another and explicitly prohibits shortening someone else`s life. Active euthanasia is prohibited by Israeli and Jewish law. Active euthanasia is permitted under Jewish law, but in some cases it has been accepted by Israeli law. [62] In 2005, proposals were made to allow passive euthanasia with a switching mechanism similar to Sabbath clocks. [63] In 2006, the Steinberg Commission was established to examine whether life-and-death issues could be re-examined in the context of Jewish law, which suggested that hospitals could set up committees to determine whether patients would receive passive euthanasia. [64] In the case of passive euthanasia, three conditions must be met: “It is cruel cruelty, it is torture to know that one`s body is no longer reacting, and since I am not in a semi-unconscious or unconscious state, I am not entitled to euthanasia. My joints tear inside and swell. The pain is horrible,” Heyder said.
He has three indwelling catheters and receives morphine every six hours. However, anonymous surveys suggest that euthanasia takes place in the UK – but this is very rare. A 2009 study that used responses from more than 3,700 medical professionals suggested that 0.2% of deaths involved voluntary euthanasia and 0.3% euthanasia without an explicit request from the patient – no assisted suicide was recorded. Agnes van der Heide, professor of decision-making and end-of-life care at erasmus University Medical Centre in Rotterdam, says the reason euthanasia is more common in the Netherlands than assisted suicide is multifaceted. Doctors may think that by performing the procedure themselves, they can have more control over the doses and time of the procedure. First, in severely incompetent patients, continued treatment should be considered not to be of medical “benefit” or too “burdensome”. For opponents of euthanasia, however, such judgments about benefits and burdens should not be associated with the assertion that the patient`s life is no longer worth living. Once it is accepted that physicians should be allowed to make clinical decisions to passively end life on the basis of such allegations, active euthanasia in the best interests of these patients would be the next logical step. Second, opponents argue that stopping treatment for severely incompetent patients should never be done with the intention of causing death – even if death is a foreseeable consequence.
This can only be done to alleviate suffering. To do otherwise, they argue, would amount to active euthanasia, and they consider it morally reprehensible. These arguments are unacceptable for two reasons.8,9 Lewis argues that the vast majority of people do not end their lives by euthanasia, even if they can. “There is much more deprivation of life-sustaining treatment, even in jurisdictions that allow euthanasia,” she says. Assisted suicide is more common than euthanasia. Places where people can end their lives in this way include Switzerland and a number of U.S. states, including California, Colorado, Hawaii, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington State, Vermont, and the District of Columbia. In the Australian state of Victoria, laws allowing assisted suicide came into force last month.
Since 1933, article 37 of the Uruguayan Penal Code has accepted compassionate murder, the first legal document to include euthanasia. It is important to say that this legal document did not use this designation. In another article, 127, the judge could do without the doctor if this measure was made by promises from patients and the doctor had an honourable reputation. [118] The main source of this penal code was Jimenéz de Asúa, a Spanish bailiff who introduced this concept in his book “Libertad de amar y derecho a morir: ensayos de un criminalista sobre eugenesia, eutanasia, endocrinología”, published in Madrid/Spain in 1928. [119] The first suggestion to understand euthanasia as homicide was made by Ruy Santos in his doctoral thesis “Da resistencia dos estados mórbidos à therapeutica e da incurabilidade perante a euthanásia” at the Faculdade de Medicina da Bahia/Brazil, in 1928. He made a distinction between euthanasia as homicide and euthanasia as suicide, probably the first quote on assisted suicide. [120] Efforts to change government policies on human euthanasia in the 20th and 21st centuries have had limited success in Western countries. The human euthanasia policy has also been developed by various NGOs, in particular medical associations and advocacy groups.