Medical Ethics in Palliative Care Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Medical Ethics in Palliative Care - Essay Example This begs the question, just how precious or sanctified is human, life? That is probably the most subjective moral question one can posit , and the answers will vary widely based on the respondent religious humanist beliefs or lack of thereof. Many people hold that life is indeed priceless and/or sacred, however their view of how it should be treated in different circumstances tend to be radically different, under the phase sanctity of life, the idea of life’s sacredness is widely applied by pro-life activist to argue against issue such as abortion, euthanasia and abortion (Doerflinge and Gomez, 2010). Central to the debate on life sanctity is the subject of euthanasia which is one of the most controversial moral, religious and medical issues of all times (Baranzke 2012, p.295). The setting in which it most frequently arises is in palliative care where many patients spend the last days of their lives under medical care without any hope of recovery only awaiting what is assumed to be a certain death. In some cases, patients in this situations or their family may request that treatment is stopped or that the patient is given a lethal dosage or drugs such as morphine to â€Å"save† them from pain. While it is allowed in some states and countries but the legality has not significantly served to reduce the amount of controversy surrounding the issue. This paper will discuss the importance of sanctity of life through several arguments against euthanasia for patients undergoing palliative care and then examining and disproving some of the opposing views that have been used to trivialize sanctity by pointing out their underlying weakness with a view to prove that; irrespective of the intentions, euthanasia is morally and medically unjustifiable. The concept of euthanasia has been in existence for almost as long as the