Euthanasia

by Brian Clowes 

In general, the term "euthanasia" means any action committed or omitted for the purpose of causing or hastening the death of a human being after birth, allegedly for the purpose of ending the person's suffering.
       

The Vatican's Declaration on Euthanasia states: "By euthanasia is understood an action or an omission which of itself or by intention causes death, in order that all suffering may in this way be eliminated."

In other words, euthanasia is a form of killing, regardless of the motives of the person committing the act. Read More...

Euthanasia

by Ignacio Carrasco de Paula

In contemporary usage, the term euthanasia does not simply mean the quest of palliative medicine to relieve pain, but the act of deliberately killing someone in order to end suffering for "merciful reasons". Appeal is made to the superior interest of the State for ulterior "justification" of such acts, since, it is claimed, that the State has sovereign power over the bodies of those of its members who have become useless to society. Read More...

Quality of Life

by Renzo Paccini

The term "quality of life" entered the medical vocabulary beginning in the 1950s. It gained ever greater importance in this field as time passed with improvements in medical resuscitation that could lead to overzealous or burdensome medical treatments and progress in the field of prenatal testing for fetal abnormalities. The ambiguousness of this expression poses many concrete problems to the extent that doctors tend to judge the "value" of their patients using a very subjective notion of "wellbeing". Read More...