Euthanasia is a procedure that seeks to accelerate the death of a terminally ill person to end their suffering.
The first thing we have to do before entering fully into the analysis of the term that concerns us now is to establish its etymological origin. In this sense, we find that it comes from Greek and specifically from the sum of two words: eu , which can be translated as "good", and tanathos , which is equivalent to "death."
Euthanasia is the action or omission that accelerates the death of a terminally ill patient with the intention of avoiding suffering. The concept is associated with death without physical suffering .
Types of euthanasia
Specifically, we can establish that there are two types of euthanasia. Thus, on the one hand, there would be the so-called direct euthanasia , which is what defines the process of bringing forward the death of a person who has an incurable disease. In this case, in turn, it can be divided into two classes: the active one , which basically achieves the death of the aforementioned patient through the use of drugs that are lethal; and the passive , which is the one that consists of achieving the death of that person through the suspension of both the medical treatment they had and their nutrition by any means.
On the other hand, the second major type of euthanasia is the so-called indirect euthanasia. Under this terminology is one that does what is trying to alleviate the pain and suffering of the person in question and to do so, a series of medications are supplied that, as an unintended consequence, can cause the death of the aforementioned person.
Euthanasia is often the subject of ethical, medical and legal debate.
Medical liability
Doctors are responsible for carrying out euthanasia, usually with the support of the relatives of the patient in question. There are cases, however, where the patient is in a position to choose about his own body and requests the application of euthanasia. This practice, however, is prohibited in most countries.
Euthanasia sparks all kinds of ethical debates. Its defenders assure that it avoids human suffering and rejects the artificial prolongation of life that leads to situations that are undignified. Detractors, on the other hand, consider that no one has the right to decide when their neighbor's life ends.
Sampedro's euthanasia
One of the best-known international cases of euthanasia was that of the Spanish Ramón Sampedro, who at the age of 25 became a quadriplegic due to a bad fall from a rock into the sea. He lived in a bed ever since and always asked to die with dignity.
He needed help to achieve said death and devised a plan that led him to achieve his goal without any of the people who had helped him committing a crime.
Potential extermination mechanism
It should be noted that, throughout history, euthanasia has been used as an excuse to carry out the elimination of social groups. Nazism promoted the euthanasia of the handicapped or disabled because it considered them inferior and with the argument of being a compassionate act.
This situation means that there are subjects who support euthanasia, but as long as it is consented by the patient. In this way, application against will is avoided. This is not the case, however, of patients in a coma who cannot speak out in any way, either for or against euthanasia. The same happens in the case of newborns.