Introduction
Euthanasia is normally a tricky ethical issue for healthcare professionals, and therefore to them, it is essential to distinguish between active and passive euthanasia. The idea is normally, at least in some cases that, while it is permissible to withhold treatment and let a patient with little or no chance die, it is not permissible to take deliberate steps to kill the patient (active euthanasia), with the former being the more acceptable option for most doctors.
Intentional killing or taking of another person’s life contravenes the very reason for the existence of the medical profession, and contravenes the policy of the American Medical Association as well as most of the associations of other countries, although a window of chance for the termination of efforts to conserve life for which an end is imminent is allowed (Rachels pg. 493).
James Rachels however disagrees with the position taken by doctors when it comes to active Euthanasia and argues that, given a case where the patient is in intolerable pain and is certain to die in a few hours wouldn’t active euthanasia be the better option considering that the second option would only serve to prolong their suffering or even a case of an infant born with deformities which cannot allow for the continuation of life, due to Down’s syndrome (like intestinal obstruction) leaving this child to die on their own just falls short of brutality, therefore in this aspect the doctors have to rise above ethics and make the tough but right choices if only to save the patient, family and even the medical staff the agony of having to watch the slow and painful death of a loved one (Rachels pg 494).
Rachels argues that while he would understand anyone who took the position of letting the child live as long as possible through active care, or anyone who opts for passive euthanasia, he does not understand why anyone would decide to let the child die a long and painful death due to among other things infection and dehydration as a result of deliberate lack of care.
Morals
What exactly constitutes morality? This is no doubt everyone will have an answer to but are they right? well, most will believe they are and are true to this, depending on the perspective from which their responses are being weighed most will be right no doubt.
In order therefore to assess the moral values, it is essential for the cases used to assess it to be the same.
Such a situation can be seen in an instance where two individuals stand to gain, from the death of their cousins, therefore one of them attempts and murders his cousin while the second though in a position to help his cousin when an accident occurs let the cousin die.,
One killed while the other let someone die knowingly, is there any difference in their behavior from a moral point of view? Can it be said that these two individuals should be judged the same?
Since both commit crimes at the morality level, in the same way (Rachels pg. 496).
Value of Life
An issue that tests the tenets of how much people value life, is that of abortion, is it right? Take for instance a situation where the pregnancy results from a rape case, is it fair to force the mother to keep the child?
The huge debates that normally arise and the intense feelings normally expressed serve to show how much people value life even that of an unborn child.
These are but just some of the difficult questions which normally arise, therefore it is in most cases prudent to withhold judgment until all the facts are in place. Sally Tisdale’s story We Do Abortions Here, is a prime example of the kind of emotions these individual mothers who go through abortions experience. Most are not normally happy with what they are doing as illustrated in the story, it is therefore essential that before we judge we should always try and put ourselves in the shoes of the person going through these experiences.
Conclusion
Ethical, Moral, and other issues that touch on various aspects of values of life are not therefore written in stone and none can claim to be able to fully understand them or be judgmental without applying proper evaluation criteria (Tisdales pg 503).
References
Thematic Readings, Philosophy Ethics and the Value of Life.