EUTHANASIA
• Euthanasia is the deliberate killing of a person for his/her benefit.
• The word euthanasia comes from the Greek words: ευθανασία (-ευ, eu, "good"), and θάνατος,
(thanatos, death).
• Thus euthanasia means good death or easy death. It is identified also as “the merciful hastening of
death, often limited to willful and merciful actions to kill one who is injured or terminally ill.”
• In the other words, “euthanasia is the termination of the life of the terminally ill patients at their request
Euthanasia can be stated to be direct or indirect (methodological). Regarding that we have these
versions:
• Passive euthanasia (indirect) refers to withholding or withdrawing treatment and letting a patient die.
Thus, passive euthanasia can also be described as “letting die” or “allowing to die.” Sometimes this is
referred to as “letting nature take its course.” This might include either withdrawing care (as in
removing a feeding tube) or withholding care (as in not prescribing antibiotics to cure an infection).
• Active euthanasia (direct) refers to more active intervention that aims to bring about the death of a
person—a lethal injection, for example.
• Physician-assisted suicide is yet another thing—as the physician merely prescribes the lethal
medication without administering it himself or herself.
• A further set of concepts focuses on whether euthanasia is given to those who request it and consent
to it or not.
• Voluntary euthanasia implies that the patient consents.
• Non-voluntary euthanasia describes euthanasia for those who are unable to give consent (infants or
those with severe brain damage).
• Involuntary euthanasia implies that the killing is done in violation of the patient’s will. There is no moral
justification regarding that. That’s why it is considered as murder.
WESTERN THINKERS ON EUTHANASIA
• Immanuel Kant (Deontology) thinks that euthanasia is immoral. This is because we need to respect
human life. And euthanasia which is the act of ending one’s life is contrary t0 the dignity of rational
human being.
• Utilitarianism says that it can be either moral or immoral, depending on the result. If the result of doing it
is beneficial for the greatest number of people then it’s moral otherwise it is immoral.
• Aristotle (Virtue Ethics) thinks that it is immoral. Aristotle deals indirectly with euthanasia and refers to
suicide in a short passages in two books: Eudemian Ethics IV and Nichomachean Ethics V. In the former,
he states that people seeking death are weak and depraved: ‘The base among mankind, by toil
overcome conceive a love of death,’ and in the latter, he writes, ‘But to seek death in order to escape
from poverty, or the pangs of love or from pain or sorrow is not the act of courageous man, but rather
of a coward.’
ISLAMIC VIEW ON EUTHANASIA
• If it is scientifically certain that life cannot be restored, then it is futile to diligently keep the patient in a
vegetative state by heroic means or to preserve the patient by deep freezing or other artificial methods. It is
the process of life that the doctor aims to maintain and not the process of dying. In any case, the doctor shall
not take a positive measure to terminate the patient's life.
• “Human life is sacred, and it should never be wasted except in the cases specified by shari’a and the law.
This is a question that lies completely outside the scope of the medical profession. A physician should not
take an active part in terminating the life of a patient, even if it is at his or her guardian’s request, and even if
the reason is severe deformity; a hopeless, incurable disease; or severe, unbearable pain that cannot be
alleviated by the usual pain killers. The physician should urge his patient to endure and remind him of the
reward of those who tolerate their suffering.
• This particularly applies to the following cases of what is known as mercy killing:
• a. the deliberate killing of a person who voluntarily asks for his life to be ended;
• b. physician-assisted suicide; and
• c. the deliberate killing of newly born infants with deformities that may or may not threaten their lives.
• All of these are forbidden!
ISLAMIC VIEW ON EUTHANASIA
• “The following cases are examples of what is not covered by the term “mercy killing”:
a. the termination of a treatment when its continuation is confirmed, by the medical committee
concerned, to be useless, and this includes artificial respirators, in as much as allowed by existing laws
and regulations;
b. declining to begin a treatment that is confirmed to be useless; and
c. The intensified administration of a strong medication to stop a severe pain, although it is known that this
medication might ultimately end the patient’s life.”
• These are the permissible cases. But they are not considered as mercy killing.
