EUTHANASIA AND ASSISTED SUICIDE: The right to die in dignity

Jean Pierre Wenger

Aug 2023 · MB Cooltura

About this ebook

Societies are based on the principle of the inalienable right to life, and indeed States have a duty to preserve life. Euthanasia is based on a human principle: to shorten the unnecessary suffering of the person undergoing a process of terminal deterioration. Of course, different cultures and different bodies of law have different assessments of the subject. The right to assisted suicide or to a so-called "dignified death" generates debates: those in favor ask why, if each person has the freedom to make decisions about his or her own life, the most important decision of all is prevented in a final phase. Those who are against it postulate the deviations that its legalization would provoke: for example, the disinvestment or even elimination of palliative care, considered as an unnecessary expense, and the possible helplessness of a patient in the care of a family overcome by suffering. It is even argued that there is a contradiction between euthanasia and physicians ́ Hippocratic oath.

About the author

Medical specialist, consultant to the program for the communities of the Intenational Federation in conflict zones. He served as a border volunteer for more than 15 years. His vast experience provides a concise and professional perspective on global medical problems.