Term "killing" (9 Aug 2001)
Wow, is it possible that some people seriously question the use of the word "killing" in this context and think "termination" should be used instead?
Does the wikipedia neutral language policy actually require the use of such extreme euphemism?
If so, shouldn't the policy apply throughout? (Wouldn't want to offend anyone by saying that Nazis killed people!)
- Behold, Goodwin's law. (http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?GodwinsLaw)
- Considering that euthanasia is legal in some countries and morally accepted by quite a few, and that genocide belogs to the heaviest crimes, using "kill" for Nazi expressed and teaches contempt. Using "kill" in reference to enuthanasia may be painful to those who are partially or solely responsible for the death of a relative. All forms of terminating assistence when it no longer stands to reason, practised in ALL hospitals around the word, fall into the definition of euthanasia.
I'm not sure I understand what you're saying. The word "kill" means "to deprive of life". It does not convey any implication as to motive or moral valuation. Using "kill" in reference to active euthanasia is simply a matter of recognizing reality. Avoiding its use is intellectual and moral evasion. On the other hand, if you
are referring to situations wherein a person is simply allowed to die naturally, by refraining from extraordinary medical intervention, I would agree that "kill" is not accurate.
But that is not the context in which the substitution I objected to was made.
- Using "to kill" is too much like saying that doctors are murdering, butchering their patients. It would be respectful, even if you are opposed of (some form of) euthanasia, to at least acknowledge that there is no criminal intent in the practice. And thus to refrain from these harsh words to describe it.
Potassium chloride
Is potassium chloride with some other drugs used for euthanasia ? - 25 Feb 2002.
- No. 22 Nov 04 Potassium chloride has been used as an alternative to table salt for people on a low sodium diet. While a lot of it could, I suppose, kill you, it is not a particularly effectiev way of killing people.
- 2 Jan 05 Actually, the person on 25 Feb is correct. Potassium chloride causes the heart to stop beating. In Dr. Kevorkian's "Thanatron" which is a device to help with assisted suicide potassium chloride is used, potassium chloride is also used in the US for executions by lethal injection. (Source: Encarta Encyclopedia)
- Hmm, look at these informative pages for potassium chloride and lethal injection. It's almost as if this web site is an encyclopedia of some sort. ←Hob 21:22, 2005 Jan 6 (UTC)
Complications
- It should be noted that in about a quarter even of the medically supervised euthanasias there are 'complications', like respiratory paralysis that make the death anything but pleasant.
Does anyone have a citation for this, and secondly, pleasant for who? The individual undergoing euthenasia? The person assisting? The family of the individual? --Robert Merkel - 20 Mar 2002
- Also, in what contry is this person referring to? Different methods in different circumstances happen in different countries
What do doctors think?
What do doctors in other countries think about euthenasia? I know in Australia, the AMA (doctors' association) objects strongly but there are a significant minority of doctors who support it (and some doctors performing or assisting in euthenasia clandistinely). What's the story in the US and Europe? --Robert Merkel - 20 Mar 2002
Nonsense; painkilling
Christian organizations and Dutch anti-euthanasia organizations claim that many old people are afraid to go to a hospital in the Netherlands. Also, the same groups say that per capita, there are less than one quarter as many disabled people in the Netherlands as in the U.S. The same groups say that many doctors in the Netherlands habitually perform euthanasia for unconscious patients with severe maimings (such as double amputations above the knees), and persons with severe disease who are estimated to be near the ends of their lives without consultation, or any significant practical oversight.
There's some very strange claims being made about the netherlands and euthansia. The only euthansia that (should be ) occuring is that which occurs in the rare situations where it's officially permitted. I haven't heard of any non-consentual euthansia happening at all, even in situations where people were maimed most dramatically indeed. Someone will have to provide some kind of clear source for that, or I'd best remove such errr.. nonsense.
Re: Arguments on painkilling:
Note that I'm aware of at least one situation where it became simply impossible to stop pain entirely in the terminal phase of an aggressive cancer. (This is actually quite logical, how would you manage to achieve any X effect be it healing or killing of pain in a system that is fundamentally broken and is currently proceeding to crash in real time?). Note that the level of pain involved here is literally a once in a lifetime experience (no humor intended), so we are epistemologically incapable of imagining quite how much suffering such a person must be going through.
Kim Bruning 22:08, 26 Mar 2004 (UTC)
Terminal sedation
I'm not sure that terminal sedation should be a redirect to this article. They are clearly closely related, but not synonymous - which this article does explain fairly clearly and neutrally, I think, but there's enough controversy on the subject that just putting it in this context raises some neutrality questions (a bit like making "abortion" a redirect to "murder", and then explaining within the article that many people don't think it really is murder, etc.). And since it takes three paragraphs to explain TS (and there's still more that could be said) I suggest that it deserves its own article. --Hob 06:23, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)
- That's OK, go ahead.--Patrick 12:39, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)
- OK, I've moved & expanded terminal sedation into its own article. I also rewrote the intro paragraphs in euthanasia somewhat as they seemed to say that a patient refusing treatment, e.g. with a DNR order, is a form of suicide - which is not true by any legal or medical definition, though ethically it's open to debate. --Hob 17:15, 2004 Aug 4 (UTC)
Cleanup/sourcing needed
I'm a little disturbed by the way the article tends to make bold statements with no specific sources. Examples:
- It should be noted that doctors routinely and legally provide medical treatment to the terminally ill involving the use of large quantities of pain-killing drugs, primarily to relieve the patient's pain, but in doses that may suppress bodily functions and thus shorten the life of the patient. (which bodily functions? absent examples, this is misleading; I have seen no evidence that high-dose pain medications shorten life, if side effects are properly controlled)
- It should be noted that in about a quarter even of the medically supervised euthanasias there are "complications", such as respiratory paralysis, that make the event of death itself anything but pleasant.
- it is said that several thousand illegal acts of euthanasia have been carried out in Belgium each year
- In the United States, the most common form of euthanasia is withholding tube-feeding to elderly and incapacitated patients .... it is so common in some areas that the family must actively prevent it, or it will occur.
I don't have time to look for sources for all of these, so I'm putting the article on the Wikipedia:Cleanup list. --Hob 17:16, 2004 Aug 4 (UTC)
- I agree with your assessment, and it may need a factual accuracy warning too. Rhobite 03:14, Aug 5, 2004 (UTC)
- I also agree. Ambi 09:36, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)
www.endoflifechoices.org
I saw that the addition of an external link to 'end of life choices' was reverted. It seems to be a legitimate, non-commercial website that is relevent to this topic. Was there a special reason for keeping that link off the article? -Willmcw 22:43, 13 Dec 2004 (UTC)
definition of voluntary euthanasia
The definition currently says Euthanasia in these cases differs from suicide by existing only within the context of the amelioration of suffering in the process of death.
However as examplified by the The Sea Inside movie (based on real-life events) and the recent Vincent Humbert case in France, people may request euthanasia when no life-threatening illness is at stakes. Also if both Ramón Sampedro and Vincent Humbert greatly suffered from their condition (both where paraplegic, Vincent had also become blind and mute), it was no suffering in a physical sense.
|
