Euthanasia and the Ethics Behind It
The issues surrounding medical futility and end of life are more often than not challenging and confounded with misunderstanding on the difference between withdrawing and withholding particular treatments while still providing health care, which can easily prompt conflict and confusion. When combined with the dynamics of cultural differences and social complexities, sorting out the issue of medical futility or even the more general Euthanasia can prove a daunting task. This paper summarizes a BBC article (“Germany overturns ban on assisted suicide,” 2020) where the German Federal Constitutional Court overturned the ban of professionally assisted suicide, highlights the moral and ethical issues surrounded, and how they relate to the ethical principle.
The article posits that the court backed complaints by a group of terminally ill patients and medical specialists who challenged the law criminalizing commercial promotion of Euthanasia that prompted terminally ill patients to move to the Netherlands and Switzerland to end their life. According to the article, the law was aimed at stopping individuals or groups of people from creating a form of business by helping people die in return for money, thereby providing recurring assistance. Moreover, Andreas Vosskuhle, the head of Germany’s constitutional court, said that whilst the parliament could pass laws on preventing Euthanasia and increasing palliative care, it is not entitled to affect the impunity of Euthanasia.
However, the moral issues surrounding Euthanasia are specifically sensitive in Germany because of the Nazi Campaign killing 300,000 people with physical and mental disabilities, whereby the Nazis referred the murders as a euthanasia program. Nonetheless, euthanasia concerns are ameliorated when caring for medical practitioners work respectively and carefully with the families and surrogate decision-makers in doing what is best the terminally ill patients using communication, compassion, and collegial co-management ethical principles.
References
Germany overturns the ban on assisted suicide. (27 February 2020). BBC News. Retrieved 26 March 2020, from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51643306