Download BCJ 3601Unit 4 Criminal Law Case StudyColumbia Southern Univ and more Lecture notes Accounting in PDF only on Docsity! BCJ 3601 Unit 4 Criminal Law Case Study Columbia Southern University BCJ 3601 What is Euthanasia? Euthanasia is defined as “Bringing about the death of a person who is terminally ill and, usually, suffering. Sometimes called mercy killing” (NOLO, 2021). Euthanasia is the Greek term for good death so we can only assume that euthanasia is sometimes a good thing depending on the situation. When we talk about euthanasia the first thing that comes to mind is usually with animals commonly cats and dogs. It is often used when an animal is suffering and must be “put down” or “put to sleep”. A lesser-known use of euthanasia is when it is used on humans that are suffering from a terminal illness and want to have a good death. In most of the United States human euthanasia is not legal and a lot of times these people must resort to a more violent form of euthanasia by either shooting their selves or also by hanging and many other forms. These forms of euthanasia more commonly known as suicide are called active methods of euthanasia. Another form of euthanasia is the passive method. This method is performed by doctors discontinuing treatment of the patient or even prescribing the patient a drug to help them slip away into death like you would see happen to an animal but often these methods can take many hours for the patient to die and lastly taking the patient off a ventilator. Human euthanasia has been a heated topic between doctors and government and there are also some lobbyist groups that advocate for this method of death. The doctors that advocate for this type of death do want it to be done safely and in a painless method and not traumatic to the family that is present while the doctor performs the procedure. The other doctors that do not believe in this method argue it to be against their ethics since human euthanasia has very little research on how to perform the procedure because there have been records of some people have a less than peaceful death. Identify and describe laws regarding euthanasia in my state According to Georgia Code 16-5-5 (2010) Any person who publicly advertises, offers, or holds himself or herself out as offering that he or she will intentionally and actively assist another person in the commission of suicide and commits any overt act to further that purpose is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than five years (Georgia Code, 2010). In other words mercy killing is a big NO in the state of Georgia. Explain a recent case about euthanasia and its outcome. I found the Vacco vs Quill case from 1997 to be interesting. I thought that Quill had a valid argument. Although I am on the fence on the entirety of this topic, I think the supreme court should have ruled in favor of Quill. My first reason being is that how can it be someone’s right to deny lifesaving treatment but not someone’s right to choose mercy death. I would think that the person denying lifesaving treatment would be more mentally unstable than the person choosing assisted suicide. The denier is being told by a doctor that they have a chance at life all the while the terminally ill person is being told the opposite and that they must suffer. Once again, my final argument is this decision should be between a doctor and patient and not the courts. Every doctor and patient have a different moral compass. Every doctor has the right to deny the patients request if it goes against their moral scope. If anything else its easier for a family to be there and say their goodbyes during a doctor assisted suicide than it is for a family to say goodbye to a closed casket because the person decided paint the wall with their brain matter.
