Euthanasia Literature Review

Euthanasia is defined as being “the act or practice of killing hopelessly sick or injured individuals (such as persons or domestic animals) in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy”[3]. The practice of euthanasia is also translated from Greek, with the meaning “Good Death”[1] and has been present throughout human history for centuries, though not all societies during that history accepted it as an alternative to a life of suffering due to medical complications such as genetic deformities or incurable illnesses, as will be discussed in the review of literature. Medical euthanasia has also been regarded as assisted suicide and is considered illegal in many countries the world over, although legalization of medical euthanasia has been

The graph shows steady growth in the number of people who found Medical Euthanasia a humane solution for the terminally ill. These results show how social ideologies have evolved over the years and how people have been able to adapt to different things, even if previous generations disagreed with them.

Another survey, this time taken by questioning undergraduate students at Uppsala University, questioned over 6000 students with 83% of those students supporting voluntary Euthanasia. Again showing how younger generations have different mindsets to their predecessors. These results also show how Medical Euthanasia is slowly becoming more acceptable in today 's society.

Conclusion

To conclude, Medical Euthanasia has steadily been accepted by different sections of society despite usual resistance from religious sectors. The results from the surveys above show that newer generations are more accepting and open minded about humanity and human life. The topic of Medical Euthanasia will always be a controversial topic though the research conducted and the literature reviewed show a developing tolerance and acceptance that people should be able to decide to end their lives in order to end their own suffering, pain felt only by