How to Respect Patient’s Quality of Life and Right to Euthanasia

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Conceive a battlefield in eighteenth-century Europe. In the evening, after the battle, a soldier is walking over the field among wounded and dead. A badly wounded man, maybe a comrade from the same company, cries to him to put an end to his suffering. The soldier stops and sees that there is no hope, only pain. He raises his weapon and shoots the wounded man dead. Was the solider criticized or punished for this coup de grace or mercy killing? Hardly: rather praised as brave and merciful. Views on mercy killing have varied widely between different times and different cultures. Greece and Rome were positive in committing a suicide, otherwise Christianity was very negative since early time. In Japan there was the ritualized hara-kiri (ritual assist suicide by disembowelment); in northern Europe, there are instructions for old people, and so on. What are the fundamental reasons for these different views? Especially development of biological science gives us new life style. however, not all advanced technologies are positive. In the aspects of morality, there are many things that have to be discussed.

참고 자료

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