We have been studying the Religion and Life topic. We have looked at abortion and now we will be moving on to euthanasia.
Task 1: What is your opinion – do you think human life is always precious?
Task 2: Euthanasia translates literally as a ‘good death’ – what do you think this means?
Euthanasia means the painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease or in an irreversible coma. It is illegal in the UK, but it is legal in some other countries.
Active euthanasia is when a doctor ends a patient’s life by administering a legal injection or any other way.
Passive euthanasia is not doing anything to stop the death of a person. It is when a doctor withholds any means in order to prolong the life of a patient.
Task 3: Write the definitions of passive and active euthanasia.
Many people (philosophers in particular) believe that active euthanasia is morally more acceptable than passive euthanasia.
Task 4: Why do you think they think this? Do you agree with them?
Dianne Pretty suffered from motor neurone disease which can lead to a slow and painful death. She wanted her husband to help her commit suicide and took her case to court as it was against British law. She had lost most of her human dignity and felt that she no longer had a quality of life.
Task 5: Should we have the right to die? Why?
Task 6: What is the impact of using euthanasia and of not using euthanasia?
Mrs Hicks' Lessons 