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For many years the topic of euthanasia has a mixed public reaction. Attention to the issue of euthanasia has increased with the development of social progress, and in particular – technology to maintain life of seriously ill people. The relevance of this topic can not be overemphasized, firstly, because it is linked with the most precious thing of a man – with his life, and secondly – because of the small level of scrutiny of the problem, the lack of lighting in the writings of scholars lawyers and the almost complete absence of relevant legal acts in the country’s legislation. Numerous debates on this subject are constantly breaking out among doctors, lawyers, psychologists, politicians, religious leaders. However, a clear answer to the question of the justification for the practice of euthanasia and can not be found.

The very idea of euthanasia was born long time ago, but from the time of Hippocrates and to our days the traditional medical ethics includes a ban: “I will nobody, even who ask for it, give the lethal medication and also advise it”. More recently, however, doctors have increasingly appears willingness to resort to this practice, at least, when the patient asks about death. How should we treat this trend? How to free from the outdated prohibitions or as a kind of permissiveness that both wrong from a moral point of view and dangerous in practice? (Declaration on Euthanasia, adopted by the 39th World Medical Assembly, Madrid, Spain, October 1987).

The main objective of this work – to understand what euthanasia is, after analyzing the problem from the standpoint of ethics, to consider the arguments for and against euthanasia, to see what is the practice of euthanasia in several countries and the United States.

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The concept of euthanasia and its evaluation from the standpoint of medical ethics

The term “euthanasia” was first used by F. Bacon in the XVII century for
the definition of “easy death”, and in the XIX century it has come to mean “to kill someone out of pity” – this refers to the premeditated murder in order to facilitate unnecessary suffering.

The Declaration on Euthanasia was adopted by the 39th World Medical Assembly, in Madrid on October 1987: “Euthanasia is an act of intentional deprivation of life of the patient, even at the request of the patient or on appeal of such a request of his relatives, is unethical. This does not preclude the need to respect doctor to patient’s request not to impede the flow of the natural process of dying in the terminal phase of illness. (Kathleen F, & Herbert H.  2002)

The real attitude to euthanasia in the world community  has split into its irreconcilable supporters and opponents, and both camps give very good arguments that do not allow to reach a specific compromise. Numerous historical examples cited by opponents of euthanasia support arguments “against” and  highlight the danger posed by the insufficient study of this phenomenon.

In Germany, the criminal law punishes “killing at the request of patient” by imprisonment from 6 months to 5 years. In England also passed a law on the absolute prohibition of any euthanasia medical practice. (Kathleen F, & Herbert H  2002)

In the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, after lengthy discussions legislation formally introduced the resolution of passive euthanasia, of course, with certain reservations regarding the exclusion of any public abuse. A doctor stops useless sustain of life but the basis for the decision to terminate treatment is free and informed will of the patient, and similar requests from closest relatives of the patient, unconscious  state, are legally invalid.
But there is a point of view, that the prohibition of euthanasia infringes on human rights to death, we are talking about person’s own life, and therefore, he should decide what to do with it. This led to the fact that, for example, in California (USA) after years of debate on the referendum was adopted first in the world Law on the “Human Right to Death”, due to which terminally ill people can sign a paper with a wish to turn off the intensive care equipment. However, there is a condition that the doctor must carry out euthanasia, that is impossible, because the American Medical Association has adopted a decision to ban its members to participate in euthanasia, putting forward the slogan: “Doctors should not be executioners.” (The International Association of Bioethics)

Therefore, doctors strongly believed that patients need to be treated in all cases. The most important argument against euthanasia is that if we allow it, the doctors will not need to seek to alleviate the suffering of sick people. In medical ethics there is a sacred taboos – life is precious, and then talk about the cost of living is immoral.