Research Paper on:
Arguing Against Euthanasia

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
unethical. Therefore, ethics are a personal trait. The power to be ethical or unethical lies within every individual. The actual choice belongs to that individual and nobody else. Between  the debates on physician-assisted suicide, biomedical ethics, patient rights, and euthanasia, along with the resulting creation of ethics committees and advance directives legislation, a discussion of spirituality and religious-based responsibility  must take place. Many of these issues have come to the foreground of the western worlds consciousness due to the growing concern over physician enthusiasm to employ life-prolonging technology in  clinical situations considered futile by patients and family. The once unthinkable decisions that lead to extraordinary measures being withheld are now a common concern for families and the patient.  However, such widespread acceptance is far from solving the problems of medical treatment at the end of life. It is also far from "ethical." A human life is not  something to be snuffed out as a matter of convenience or cost-savings. To think otherwise is to consider and embrace what would have been considered at one time (and should  still be) as an "abomination." Responsibility to Life Discussions of appropriate medical care, societys responsibility to assure the greatest possible health for its members, must also include careful analysis of  our responsibility to avoid over use of the limited resources and capability of modern (and ethical) medicine. However, that is not to suggest that euthanasia is a reasonable alternative or  solution. Richards (2000) points out that: "Technological progress is changing our existence at such a rate that every week seems to confront us with decisions about what to do in  situations we have never encountered before" (pp. 27). She goes on to note that the ways in which people attempt to apply their already "existing moral standards" to such situations