Euthanasia in Modern Society: the Topicality, Practicability, and Medical Aspect of the Problem

Abstract

The article is devoted to the issues of definition of ethical, legal and medical aspects of euthanasia. The main problems of the current state of the right to euthanasia in the world practice, its interrelation with the right to medical care and the right to life are considered. The work analyzes the types of euthanasia. It is shown that human life continues to be considered the highest value in many countries of the world. This is confirmed by an increasing number of human rights organizations seeking to protect human rights. In addition, euthanasia as a social phenomenon continues its existence in the modern global world. The article instances the countries of the European Union, which until now have been using euthanasia as a means of achieving state goals. The results of the carried study of the doctors' attitude to the possibility of using various forms of euthanasia have shown that the problem of euthanasia is one of the most vexed and unsolved medical, deontological, ethical, philosophical, and legal problems of our times. At the same time, it is shown that it is not possible to consider the problem of euthanasia from the standpoint of good and evil, since these categories cannot be universal. The authors, based on the analysis of existing points of view, the current legislation provisions, set forth their own vision of this problem. Considering the need to provide a legal form of euthanasia from different points of view, the authors come to the conclusion that the consolidation at the legislative level in modern socio-economic and political conditions of such a form of alleviating the suffering of seriously ill patients will not solve the underlying problem. On the contrary, it can facilitate the actions that contradict the norms of morality and justice.