Brian a Risman

Euthanasia and the Law Brian a Risman

The word Euthanasia originally meant the "art" of dying, or to meet death with serene calm. The word 'euthanasia' comes from the Greek words eu (good) and thanatos (death) . During the course of centuries the meaning of this word changed. It first became the expression for the attempt of the physician - originating in human compassion, developed by medical science - to alleviate the end of a dying person by soothing his pain. But then the meaning of the word, and with it the concept of euthanasia, was expanded, and towards the end of the 19th century it meant assistance in dying through an abbreviation of life if the life of the suffering person had lost its value in view of immediate and painful death, or as a result of an incurable disease. However, modern usage has a rather different connotation. Moreover, the connotations even in the modern world can have several conflicting, emotionally-driven contexts. It is the competing, extreme contexts of what euthanasia means that results in different meanings. Euthanasia has the synonym in Dictionary.com as 'mercy killing' and also as 'painless death'. But even this modern definition - for example, 'mercy killing' had its origins in the period 1930-35 - is controversial. There have been cases worldwide of family or friends' feeling that putting a perpetually disabled person to death is heroic. But is it heroic? At the same time as putting the disabled people to death is considered a heroic good deed, organisations for - and of - the disabled have expressed fear that such attitudes promote blanket executions of the disabled. What about people with terminal diseases? Some people do opt for a quick end. But many hold out hope that they want to live. Is that wish for life becoming considered a negative in society? It would seem so. Many people with terminal diseases - and their family and friends - are pressured to end life, seemingly 'to accept your death and get over with it'. Of course, the reality is that the time of passing is not the will of Man. It should not be the will of those advocating a form of 'mercy killing'. This book will examine the legal issues of Euthanasia, focusing on the Nazi illegal and abusive actions in this regard, and then looking at the dilemmas encountered today with Pandemics -- in the face of limited human and material resources, who decides who receives treatment and who does not?