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person in the prime of life who strenuously clings for life. There is liability to preserve life it is murder to omit to discharge a duty to preserve life with intent to kill or encouraging to commit suicide for aiding abetting, counseling, or procuring suicide..
Law has historically embodied the middle way not only on value of life but also on individual autonomy & continue to prescribe euthanasia as wrongfulness & harm upon others or exposes oneself to harm or risk of harm such as snorting cocaine driving vehicle without wearing seatbelt. Criticism on law 1) VAE, PAS are common that legal prohibition is largely unenforced & lack of enforcement betrays an attitude of hypocritical sympathy.
They are common while there is some evidence that they occur. In a survey where doctors were asked, have you evertaken active steps to bring about death of patient, who asked you to do so? 9% replied affirmatively & asked if they would be prepared to withdraw or withhold a course of treatment from terminally ill patient knowing the treatment might prolong the patient's life? 65% replied affirmatively.
In U.S. who had performed VAE or PAS was 6% this really is not happening very often It's rave event. There steps intentionally to end or help end patients lives A doctor who did so would be liable to a lengthy term of imprisonment & erasure from the medical register. 2. needs to show that the law is largely unenforced. If there is sufficient evidence & prosecution would be in public interest. 3. Even if VAE, PAS are common, many criminal laws are broken not minor only but serious offences like rape unlike rape VAE is victimless crime on Victim consents or requests. and no one is harmed. It doesn't mean that it is not illegal because it is consented. Dutch Health Council has listed conditions. 1) request of euthanasia (VAE) must come only from the patient & must be entirely free & voluntary. 2) Request must be well considered durable, & persistent 3) Patient must be experiencing intolerable not necessarily physical) suffering with no prospet of improvement. 4) Euthanasia-must be last resort other alternatives to alleviate the patients situation must have been considered & found wanting. 5) Euthanasia - must be performed by a physician. 6) The physician must consult with an independent physician colleague who has experience in this field. 7) Having performed VAE, the doctor must not certify death by natural causes. To do so would involve the criminal offence of falsifying the death
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