The Laws of Applied Euthanasia

Guidelines for euthanasia of semi-conscious patients

Thus, opponents of legalization of active euthanasia, as primary argument, emphasize the holiness of life at all costs which is supported primarily with arguments in Islamic and Christian religion, which prohibit any form of suicide 7 , 9 , while its supporters believe that the moral obligation of doctors is to end the life of terminally ill patient who is suffering, but they also highlight the strong individual autonomy in the matters of life and death.

In short, both supporters and opponents summarize most of their arguments on the concept of respect for the patient, where they allocate four forms: Therefore, inter alia, any discussion of euthanasia leads to objections based on religious grounds. This religious opposition to euthanasia is based on the claim that only someone who is not religious can consider euthanasia as one of the options in the life, but it cannot be for the people who have a religious orientation.

1. A General History of Euthanasia | The Life Resources Charitable Trust.
2. Saudi Arabia in the New Middle East.
3. Euthanasia and assisted suicide laws around the world | Society | The Guardian!

In accordance with beliefs that prevail in some countries, their legislators resolve the issue of euthanasia in accordance with those beliefs, and some solutions will be discussed below. Among the reasons that explain the different treatment of euthanasia between countries, according to some authors, doctors often have a limited experience in this field, because they are not faced with such health condition of the patients This statement is correct.

For example, physicians in Bosnia and Herzegovina do not have any experience with euthanasia. In the world were crystallized three approaches in the legislative regulations of this matter, and we will briefly point out the solutions in some jurisdictions. Due to the volume of work, we will explain the legislations in which euthanasia is equated with murder, as well as legislations that represent quite the opposite solution.

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First, in all Islamic countries, in accordance with religious beliefs, direct euthanasia is prohibited and is equated with the murder. Iran is no exception. In Iranian law, euthanasia is not explicitly mentioned in the legal texts, but there are some exceptions that lead to a more lenient punishment in some murder cases. However, the euthanasia is a murder with intent, and comes from a religious doctrine of Muslims.

Because of the above, there are still no attempts for broader interventions for legalizing mercy killing Such line of regulation of this sensitive matter kept the legislator in the Bosnia and Herzegovina, which has four similar criminal regulations, because this country has four legislations Bosnia and Herzegovina, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republic of Serbs, and Brcko District.

These parts of the Bosnia do not have a same approach to the regulation of euthanasia, although at first glance it could be said that there is no difference in these criminal laws. It is a specific country, consisting of two entities Federation Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Republic of Serbs , and the Brcko District.

All three parts have their own legislation. For some considerations it is important to note that on this territory are valid three criminal codes: Criminal Code of Federation Bosnia and Herzegovina further: The legislator makes a difference between this, ordinary murder, and the first degree murder which includes causing a death of another person in a cruel or insidious way; by reckless and violent behavior; on racial, national or religious reasons; for gain, to commit or conceal another serious crime; from ruthless revenge or other base motives; and the murder of official or military personnel in the performance of duties of security or the duty to maintain public order, arrest the perpetrator of the crime or guarding a person deprived o liberty article Almost identical provision is contained in the CC BD, which in the addition has a hate murder article In addition to these two forms of murder, these laws recognize a provoked murder, manslaughter, murder of a child at birth, incitement to suicide and assisted suicide, and unlawful termination of pregnancy.

Therefore, all those deprivations of life, which does not fall within in these specially defined, fall under ordinary murder. In this way, they observe euthanasia. In the part of country where live people of Islamic faith mercy killing is equated with the ordinary murder, while the legislator in the RS considers euthanasia as murder committed under mitigating circumstances.

According to it, who deprive another person of life shall be punished with imprisonment at least five years maximum is twenty-five years of imprisonment , but if the crime is committed under mitigating circumstances, the offender shall be punished with imprisonment from one to eight years article It follows that the criminal laws of the FBH and BD are inspired by the group of legislations that do not privilege a mercy murder, believing that compassion for poor condition of the murdered is not a separate basis for a more lenient punishment.

On the other hand, the legislator in RS is in the group that has a benevolent view on this issue. In the theory it is adopted an attitude that particularly mitigating circumstances occur circumstances in rare and specific situations. However, it should be noted that the sharp equalization of these two types of murders is not desirable, because there are different reasons that lead to negative consequences View of euthanasia as a simple murder took the English legislator, where it resulted in the emergence of the death tourism , the phenomena where English inhabitants travel to Switzerland in the special hospitals and institutions to be euthanized At the end of these considerations, we could mention that in the United States euthanasia is also prohibited and equalized with murder.

The first associations about the Netherlands for many years have been related to the beautiful canals, parks, windmills, rich museums, and unique architecture. Today, this country is particularly known for two things: The first known case of euthanasia in the Netherlands dates back to the early fifties of the last century, when the physician performed euthanasia against his own brother, who was in terminal stage of the disease and that caused a lot of pain, so he repeatedly asked his brother to take his life However, this case had not attracted the attention of the public, unlike the case Postma in , when the doctor was prosecuted because she injected a le thal dose of morphine to her mother, who had very poor health, but did not fatally diseased.

In this highly emotional case, the court sentenced a doctor to one-year suspended sentence, but to whom execution is not occurred 23 , This was followed by cases Amsterdam in , Rotterdam in and Alkmaar in The Dutch parliament in the winter of reached a compromise between the two opposing concepts in the issue of euthanasia The parliament enacted the law that represents, generally speaking, a sort of codification of rules and procedures under which euthanasia is performed approximately three decades prior the enactment of the law.

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It is the most liberal law that regulates this matter in Europe. These standards and procedures are applied in medical practice and the practice of courts prosecuting crimes for deprivation of life from grace, and there is no extensive theoretical and legal doctrine on this issue, offering guidance in understanding the act of euthanasia 25 , The Netherlands prescribed the liberal conditions necessary for the execution of euthanasia.

According to the law, euthanasia is permitted upon meeting of the following requirements:. Therefore, the physician who performs euthanasia will be protected from prosecution only if he meets all substantive and procedural requirements That is why euthanasia is subject of control. In order to get the information whether they committed a crime, doctors sometimes have to wait a period of eight months from performed euthanasia In fact, after the euthanasia doctor has an obligation to fill out the appropriate protocol and inform about euthanasia the municipal pathologist, by filling out the appropriate form and attaching all necessary documents Although at one point in this country a question of the existence of culture of death was raised, which was caused by number of early deaths of patients, the Royal Dutch Medical Association Koninklijke Nederlandsche tot beverdering der Geneeskunst KNMG , recently, inter alia, reiterated that the law on termination of life must be an exception, not the rule, and that this procedure will never become a standard 32 , although a number of doctors do not consider euthanasia as a exceptional measure, which would require the exercise of social control of it However, the studies show that in the Netherlands euthanasia is more accepted way of completion of life.

Proponents of this form of deprivation of life find that the key determinant in this process should be self-determination, because respect of life includes the avoidance of undignified death In addition, legal and medical theory state that patients are not afraid of euthanasia, but their biggest fear is that their request for euthanasia will be denied With regard to the statistics of euthanasia, we can note that there are significant differences in relation to the different years of observation. In the following year, there were 3, notifications, which represent a significant increase in the number of deaths in this way, compared with the previous year The main reason in all observed periods that led the patients on this step was existence of cancer.

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However, it is important to mention the fact that in each of the analyzed years there are several cases where the doctor did not comply with the rules of procedure. For example, in are recorded four such cases In contrast to this fact, the prosecutions are rare. For instance, between and there were prosecuted only 20 doctors, of whom nine were convicted, but on the symbolic sentence six to the suspended sentence and three on fines Then, based on the above, we should point out that in the Dutch professional public there are perceptions that the cases of euthanasia in fact do not exist.

Reason for this opinion is that most of the cases are related with patients who are terminally ill cancer , who have greatly suffered and received massive doses of medicaments The idea of legalizing euthanasia in Belgium emerged at the beginning of the 80s of the XX century, in the action of two associations for the right to die with dignity. However, unlike Netherlands, Belgium did not have a long history of performing euthanasia and prosecuting doctors, and it could not establish appropriate guidelines and led the legislator to the faster reaction. In the same time, that does not mean that there were doctors who practiced in the shadows and supported the idea of euthanasia Euthanasia law was enacted on 16 May In Belgium, before the enactment of the law, there were no guidelines or case law regarding to mercy killing.

Therefore, Belgian law is much more detailed than Dutch law, which was more a result of some sort of codification of regulations For these reasons, the Belgian legislator issued detailed provisions, in order to provide a greater level of protection and security to doctors and patients Characteristic of this law is that legislator in the title as well as in the text, uses a term euthanasia , which is defined as intentionally taking the life of another person upon his request. The definition, as a term, from one side, is taken from the Dutch law and theory; while on the other hand, the current Dutch law does use neither the term nor the definition.

At this point, it is necessary to draw attention to the fact that the Belgian euthanasia law does not specifically regulate assisted suicide, and the reason for that can be found in the fact that it has never been a social need to regulate assisted suicide as a separate crime, and the difference between it and mercy killing is minimal.

Therefore, regulation of assisted suicide in this law was superfluous — such as excessive mention that physicians has to take this procedure with due care and attention The requirements upon which the act of euthanasia will not constitute a criminal offence are set in almost the same way as in the Dutch legislation. To be sure, the physician needs to do more interviews with the patient, but spread over a longer period, in order to follow better the development of state of his mind.

The physician also has to consult another doctor about the condition of the patient, and to inform him of the request for euthanasia. Another doctor will review medical records and talk with the patient. His findings should be documented. He has to be completely independent from the patient and the acting physician as well, and must be competent to give an opinion on the disease in question, which will inform a patient. The next requirement is related with medical stuff, first, with nurses.

Namely, if the concern about patient was engaged those who had a constant contact with the patient, the doctor needs to talk with them about the request for mercy killing 40 , The number of performed euthanasia in Belgium slightly increased after legalization, and raised the question of whether the deprivation of life of grace is normal medical practice or not. According to the Report from , in merciful deprivation of life from mercy was conducted, which is average about 17 euthanasia per month, i.

However, the number of performed euthanasia has grown rapidly over the coming years, so in about euthanasia was reported which is slightly less than the previous year, when they reported deaths , and in there were 1. Luxembourg is the third country in Europe which legalized euthanasia, and which legislator brought euthanasia and assisted suicide law on 20 February , and which entered into a force on 16 May year Compared to the last two described laws, this law is similar, but not identical with them.



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The conditions for this procedure are set more or less on the same way. An important difference with the previously described legislations lies in the fact that physician has to seek prior approval from the National Council in order to perform a euthanasia Deprivation of life from compassion throughout the history of humanity appears as a question that engrosses the attention of lawyers, doctors, sociologists around the worlds.

Bypassing the countries that privilege euthanasia as less serious murder, in this paper we have dealt with some legislations that this phenomenon strictly prohibit, and those that deprivation of life out of compassion treat as a permitted medical procedure. In Islamic countries, such as Iran, Turkey and part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, euthanasia is an ordinary murder, punishable by serious criminal sanctions. At the opposite pole are the Western European countries, more specifically, the Benelux countries Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg , in which deprivation of life from the grace does not constitute a crime, if it was carried out in accordance with the clearly defined legal rules and medical procedure.

In this way, we show how a life situation may be in different legal areas regulated in completely different way. Exactly this lack of harmony in the legislative solution in some European and American countries has led to the some adverse events, such as death tourism , as a phenomenon where inhabitants of one country, where euthanasia is prohibited, travel to another state where it is allowed, and where physicians can perform euthanasia.

British Broadcasting Corporation Home. This article introduces the debate around euthanasia. Should human beings have the right to decide on issues of life and death? Euthanasia is the termination of a very sick person's life in order to relieve them of their suffering. A person who undergoes euthanasia usually has an incurable condition. But there are other instances where some people want their life to be ended. In many cases, it is carried out at the person's request but there are times when they may be too ill and the decision is made by relatives, medics or, in some instances, the courts.

Euthanasia is against the law in the UK where it is illegal to help anyone kill themselves. Voluntary euthanasia or assisted suicide can lead to imprisonment of up to 14 years. The issue has been at the centre of very heated debates for many years and is surrounded by religious, ethical and practical considerations. At the heart of these arguments are the different ideas that people have about the meaning and value of human existence.

Some people think that euthanasia shouldn't be allowed, even if it was morally right, because it could be abused and used as a cover for murder. Euthanasia can be carried out either by taking actions , including giving a lethal injection, or by not doing what is necessary to keep a person alive such as failing to keep their feeding tube going. It is not euthanasia if a patient dies as a result of refusing extraordinary or burdensome medical treatment.

A General History of Euthanasia

It's not euthanasia to give a drug in order to reduce pain, even though the drug causes the patient to die sooner. This is because the doctor's intention was to relieve the pain, not to kill the patient. This argument is sometimes known as the Doctrine of Double Effect. Very often people call euthanasia 'mercy killing', perhaps thinking of it for someone who is terminally ill and suffering prolonged, unbearable pain.