Essay

Assisted suicide and euthanasia

There is marked confusion between the concepts of assisted suicide and euthanasia. Therefore we must begin by clarifying some concepts.  The World Medical Association in 1987 defined euthanasia as "deliberate act to terminate the life of a patient.” The Spanish Society of Palliative Care in 2002 defined it as: "conduct (action or inaction)intentionally aimed at ending the life of a person who has a serious and irreversible disease, for humane reasons and in a medical context. Euthanasia is called to any act or omission which, to avoid suffering for terminally ill patients, accelerated his death with his consent. Euthanasia is intended to prevent unbearable suffering or the artificial prolongation of life a patient.   To consider the act as euthanasia,the patient must have necessarily a terminal disease or incurable, and secondly, medical staff must have the expressed consent of the patient. What is the difference between euthanasia and assisted suicide? In euthanasia, is when the doctor, or other health professional led by him, administers the lethal injection that kills the patient.  In contrast, assistedsuicide the patient himself causes his death, with the help of someone that gives the tools or the media to do it.  If a doctor gives the help, is a "medical assisted suicide.”
Adopted by the 44th World Medical Assembly Marbella, in Spain, September 1992, and revised by the 170th Council Session, Divonne-les-Bains, France in May 2005, the World Medical Association says: “the physician-assisted suicide, like euthanasia, isunethical and should be condemned by the medical profession.  When the physician intentionally aids the person to end his life, the physician acts unethically. However, the right to refuse medical treatment is a basic right of the patient and the physician acts ethically even if respecting that desire the patient dies.”
The Netherlands is the first country where euthanasia is practiced openly.  The lawallows to end the life of another person, whether a doctor or by the wish of a patient taking into account that requested the doctor must be voluntary, explicit and carefully considered and should have done repeatedly. To carry out active euthanasia should be made ​​to the following conditions: there must be patient requests, and these must be repeated and well informed.  The disease mustbe incurable mental or physical. It must have exhausted all other care options.  There must be approval of another doctor other than going to perform euthanasia.  And there must be documentation of the facts. 
When considering the possibility of legalizing euthanasia, insisting that it will be only for extreme cases and taking steps to prevent abuses.  The experience, however, showsthat if euthanasia is allowed in exceptional cases, little by little is replicated in such extreme cases.  Examples of this is when some healthy people want the physician-assisted suicide because they have no desire to live, either by loss of familiars or tragicevent which left alone in life. Or people who are elderly, who do not want to live longer but not having a lethal disease.
In Oregon, the United States inNovember 1997, approved the "Law to die with dignity", by which was legalized for the first and, so far only time in the U.S., the immoral practice of "assisted suicide" . This law establishes certain conditions that can be applied: there is consent from a patient, it is over 18 years living in Oregon and is capable of making decisions. It also requires the physician to diagnose thecondition "terminal" patient(less than six months), for which you should consult another doctor to confirm the diagnosis. The law, however, do not request a psychiatric evaluation to protect patients who are in states of depression, nor does it require that the decision is made by the doctor, or to be notified of kin about the plans suicide. Nor does it prevent the second doctor is consulted a...