Euthanasia Legal Wiki
On 15 December 2014, the Constitutional Court gave the Ministry of Health and Social Protection 30 days to issue guidelines for the health sector to guarantee their right to a dignified death for dismissed patients who wish to undergo euthanasia. [25] The term euthanasia comes from the Greek words “eu” – good and “thanatos” – meaning death, which together mean “good sterod” or “well to die”. Hippocrates mentions euthanasia in the Hippocratic Oath, written between 400 and 300 BC. The original oath states: “In order not to please anyone, I will prescribe a lethal medicine or give advice that could cause his death. [10] Nevertheless, the ancient Greeks and Romans generally did not believe that life should be preserved at all costs, and therefore tolerated suicide in cases where help could not be offered to the dying or, in the case of the Stoics and Epicureans, when a person no longer cared about his life. [11] [12] On January 6, 1949, the Euthanasia Society of America submitted a petition to the New York State Legislature to legalize euthanasia, signed by 379 prominent Protestant and Jewish ministers, the largest group of religious leaders who ever took this position. A similar petition was sent to the New York Legislature in 1947, signed by about 1,000 New York doctors. Roman Catholic religious leaders criticized the petition, saying such a law would “legalize a suicide-murder pact” and a “rationalization of God`s fifth commandment, `Thou shalt not kill.`” [52] The Right Reverend Robert E. McCormick testified that on June 17, 2016, legislation was passed by both Houses of the Canadian Parliament and received Royal Assent to allow euthanasia in Canada. [25] [10] In a 6:3 decision in 1997, Colombia`s Constitutional Court ruled that “no one shall be held criminally responsible for taking the life of a terminally ill patient who has given clear authorization to do so,” according to the Washington Post.[36] The Court defined “terminally ill” persons as those with diseases such as “cancer, AIDS and kidney or liver failure, if they are incurable and the cause of extreme suffering,” the Post reported.
The decision explicitly refused to allow euthanasia for people with degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer`s, Parkinson`s or Lou Gehrig`s disease. Founded more than 30 years ago, the group provides patients with legal assistance, advice and information on medical assistance in dying. [18] Euthanasia was legal in parts of the Northern Territory from 1996 to 1997 after the Territory`s Parliament passed the Terminally Ill Rights Act 1995. As a territory, not a state, the federal government under Prime Minister John Howard (among other things) amended the Northern Territory (Self-Government) Act 1978 to ensure that Australian territories could no longer legislate on euthanasia. [13] This reversed the legal status of euthanasia in the Northern Territory, where it has remained illegal ever since. The federal government is not in a position to impose restrictions on health issues for the six Australian states in the same way. [14] In early 2019, a coalition of euthanasia organizations was formed to advocate for legal recognition of the right to die. [155] In June 2005, Francine Lalonde introduced a private member`s bill in Parliament C-407 that would have legalized assisted suicide in Canada, but the January 2006 election put an end to this bill. Lalonde was re-elected and reintroduced his bill to legalize assisted suicide, which ended in the 2008 election. The right to die is a concept based on the belief that people have the right to end their lives or undergo voluntary euthanasia. Possession of this right is often understood to mean that a person with an incurable illness or without the will to continue living should be allowed to end their life, resort to assisted suicide or refuse treatment that prolongs their life.
The question of who, if any, should be empowered to make this decision is often at the heart of the debate. The Maine Death with Dignity Act was introduced in the state legislature in 2019 by Congresswoman Patricia Hymanson (D-York). The bill passed the House of Representatives by 73 votes to 72 and the Senate by 19 votes to 16. On June 12, 2019, Governor Janet Mills signed into law the Maine Death with Dignity Act, making Maine the ninth jurisdiction to legalize assisted suicide in the United States. [23] Active euthanasia or assisted suicide is not legal in Chile. However, passive euthanasia is legal. Since 2012, the regulation of patients` rights has created the right to informed consent, which allows you to accept or refuse any medical treatment. Patients may refuse treatment if they are in the later stages. [33] A bill authorizing active euthanasia and assisted suicide is currently under consideration in 2019. [34] [35] The Japanese government has no official laws on the status of euthanasia and the Supreme Court of Japan has never ruled on the issue. On the contrary, Japan`s euthanasia policy has so far been decided by two local court cases, one in Nagoya in 1962 and the other after an incident at Tokai University in 1995. The first case concerned “passive euthanasia” (消極的安楽死, shōkyokuteki anrakushi) (i.e.
letting a patient die by disabling life support) and the second case concerned “active euthanasia” (積極的安楽死 sek,kyokuteki anrakushi) (e.g. by injection). The judgments in these cases establish a legal framework and a set of conditions under which passive and active euthanasia could be legal. Nevertheless, in both cases, the doctors were found guilty of violating these conditions when they took the lives of their patients. As the findings of these tribunals have not yet been confirmed at the national level, these precedents are not necessarily binding. Nevertheless, there is currently a provisional legal framework for the implementation of euthanasia in Japan. [65] The Church of England accepts passive euthanasia in certain circumstances, but strongly opposes it and has opposed the recent attempt to legalize it. [89] The United Church of Canada accepts passive euthanasia in certain circumstances, but generally opposes active euthanasia, and it is now increasingly accepted that active euthanasia has been partially legalized in Canada. [90] It is generally accepted that physicians have a role to play in the process of assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia (as the name “medically assisted suicide” suggests), which often puts them at the forefront of the problem.