Examples Of Euthanasia Patients

FDR, American antisemitism, and the silence of the Jews: The Holocaust, 1944

  Dr. Robert Rozett, Yad v’Shem Director of Libraries, read a letter by the noted but absent Israeli historian, Yehuda Bauer.  Strongly disagreeing with Wyman Institute claims that the Bergson Group played a significant part in the rescue of European Jewry, Bauer wrote,  “To claim today that [Hillel] Kook was responsible for saving lives in Budapest is a little short of preposterous… I do not doubt that the Bergson Group contributed very much to awareness of the Holocaust in the U.S., although by 1944, forty-eight percent of Americans were expressing anti-Jewish views, as Fortune Magazine told us. But all these controversies were marginal to any prospect of rescue. In a sense, the [U.S] Administration was right, as it was powerless to save the millions. The only answer [as FDR insisted] was to win the war and kill the murderers. Kook and [Rabbi Stephen] Wise could not do much about that.” Beyond the obvious effort at provocation two of Bauer’s remarks deserve repeating:  1.  “by 1944 [with the murder campaign well underway and the American press reporting its progress],  forty-eight percent of Americans were expressing anti-Jewish views ;” and,  2. “the [US] Administration… was  powerless  to save the millions.” Both statements are factually more or less correct. Certainly by 1944 it  was  too late “to save  the millions .” But even at this late stage in the extermination campaign Roosevelt could have responded to the pleas by inmates and the Bergson Group and ordered a bomb or two dropped on the killing centers and rail lines daily feeding them thousands of victims. What may be Roosevelt’s most inhumane justification for not bombing he is reported to have said that, “Americans would be accused of   the allies had already established control of the skies over most of Europe, were engaged in round the clock bombing runs of up to 700 aircraft. At bottom, rationalizations aside, humanitarian considerations regarding the Jews was just not important to Roosevelt. So Bauer’s agreement with the president that by 1944, “the only answer was to win the war and kill the murderers” raises questions regarding his motivation.

Euthanasia

The word euthanasia translates from Greek roots as “good death.” The Oxford English Dictionary states that the original meaning, “a gentle and easy death,” has evolved to mean “the actions of inducing a gentle and easy death.” This definition is consistent with contemporary use of the term. For example, the Canadian Senate Special Committee on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide defined euthanasia as “the deliberate act undertaken by one person with the intention of ending the life of another person in order to relieve that person’s suffering where that act is the cause of death” (Senate of Canada 1995, p. 15). Euthanasia is generally classified in terms of certain subcategories, depending upon whether or not the person who dies by euthanasia is considered to be competent or incompetent and whether or not the act of euthanasia is considered to be voluntary, nonvoluntary, or involuntary.

Definitions of Euthanasia

Euthanasia is considered to be voluntary when it takes place in accordance with the wishes of a competent individual, whether these wishes have been made known personally or by a valid advance directive—that is, a written statement of the person’s future desires in the event that he or she should be unable to communicate his or her intentions in the future. A person is considered to be competent if he or she is deemed capable of understanding the nature and consequences of the decisions to be made and capable of communicating this decision. An example of voluntary euthanasia is when a physician gives a lethal injection to a patient who is competent and suffering, at that patient’s request.

Nonvoluntary euthanasia is done without the knowledge of the wishes of the patient either because the patient has always been incompetent, is now incompetent, or has left no advance directive. A person is considered incompetent when he or she is incapable of understanding the nature and consequences of the decision to be made and/or is not capable of communicating this decision. In the case of nonvoluntary euthanasia, the wishes of the patient are not known. An example of nonvoluntary euthanasia is when a doctor gives a lethal injection to an incompetent elderly man who is suffering greatly from an advanced terminal disease, but who did not make his wishes known to the physician when he was competent. Another example would be a father who asphyxiates with carbon monoxyde a congenitally handicapped child who was never considered to be competent.

Bioethics, a systematic approach

A clear example of euthanasia for incompetent patients being parasitic on euthanasia for competent patients is when the incompetent patient has an advance ...

Protecting psychiatric patients and others from the assisted-suicide movement, insights and strategies

If the patient would actually have opposed the procedure, it will be called involuntary euthanasia. A few examples will illustrate the kinds of ...

Euthanasia, ethics and the law, from conflict to compromise

Some argue that euthanasia can be performed for the benefit of those close to the patient, who might welcome the release from having to witness their loved ...

Euthanasia, death with dignity and the law

For example, in 1936 the Euthanasia Bill provided for a system of prior notification whereby adult patients (then classified as persons over twenty-one) ...

The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

As John Keown has asked, “[w]hat, for example, is the supposed difference between a doctor handing a lethal pill to a patient; placing the pill on the ...