EUTHANASIA: EVOLUTION FROM DARK AGES TO "DARK AGE"(MODERN TIMES)

Since the days of the Greek physician Hippocrates some 2,400 years ago, those who practice the science of medicine have taken an oath to protect and preserve human life. For centuries physicians have declared, "I will give no deadly drug if asked for it, or make a suggestion to this effect." In the contemporary version of the oath, known as the Declaration of Geneva, doctors pledge "solemnly, freely, and upon my honour," that, "I will maintain the utmost respect for human life from the time of conception; even under threat I will not use my medical knowledge contrary to the laws of humanity."
The shift from a "sanctity of life" ethic to a "quality of life" ethic is the most profoundly evil step a nation can take. "Once they make this transformation,they can justify any atrocity by disguising it behind the alluring masks of ‘compassion’ and ‘realism.’" Any society that loses its belief that life is sacred and that only God can decide when to give or take a life has taken a risky step down the road to totalitarianism. In time, life in such a culture will become meaningless, and death will be incredibly cheap.
The history of euthanasia is a history of how mankind has viewed and dealt with the problems of suffering and death. The earliest recorded examples of active euthanasia were in ancient Greece, where it was a generally accepted practice. Mercy killing by physicians of terminally ill patients continued into the Roman world.3 An argument advanced by the Roman philosopher Seneca in the first century A.D. sounds remarkably similar to the arguments given by the proponents of Initiative 119 today; "it makes a great deal of difference whether a man is lengthening his life or his death. But if the body is useless for service, why should one not free the struggling soul?"4
The philosophy of Neoplatonism which arose in the third century A.D. combined with the rise of Christianity to erode the traditional Roman acceptance of suicide and euthanasia. Neoplatonism taught that suicide for any reason is wrong, and Christianity taught that all life is sacred, regardless of its quality, as opposed to the Greek and Roman ideal that the value of life is determined by the quality of life.
During the Middle Ages, under the influence of the church, suicide was extremely rare and euthanasia, if practiced at all, was not openly accepted. Thomas Aquinas regarded suicide to be a violation of the commandment "thou shalt not kill" and the most dangerous of sins because it left no time for repentance.5 The Reformation, which broke down the authority of the Roman Catholic Church, did not alter the traditional opposition to suicide and euthanasia.
Not until the Renaissance, when Greek and Roman ideals were looked back to, did the idea of easing the process of dying again gain acceptance. In Thomas Moore's Utopia, voluntary euthanasia is officially sanctioned, and Francis Bacon said that physicians should help patients "to make a fair and easy passage from life."6 The Renaissance also experienced the first explosion in medical technology since classical Greece. While quite primitive by today's standards, these advances allowed doctors to keep patients alive longer, often prolonging their suffering. The proponents of euthanasia at this time were speaking of passive euthanasia, that is withholding medical treatments which only prolong the suffering of a dying patient and doing what can be done to ease the pain and discomfort of the patient in the process of natural death. This general acceptance of passive euthanasia has continued into the this century.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, calls for the legalization of active euthanasia (i.e. mercy killing) became more common. By 1937 the Voluntary Euthanasia Act was introduced in the Nebraska legislature. This bill would have granted euthanasia to any person claiming to have an incurable or fatal disease (including the infirmities of old age) and it would have allowed the next of kin to request euthanasia on behalf of an incompetent adult or a parent to request it for an incompetent child. Organizations were formed to promote the legalization of voluntary active euthanasia and public support for legalization reached 41% by 1939.7 The Nebraska bill failed, however, and efforts to have similar legislation introduced in other states also met with failure.
About this time, in Germany, an experiment was taking place which many of today's opponents of legalized active euthanasia point to for support of their position.8 Calls for euthanasia in Germany, in contrast to the humanitarian motivation found in America, were based on the philosophy of Nazi Socialism which preached racism and subordination of the individual to the community. This ideology, combined with the ideas of eugenics, resulted in a system which exterminated those who were deemed useless to the community, such as the mentally ill and invalids, as well as those from races considered inferior; namely the Poles, Russians, Gypsies, and Jews.9 By the end of World War II, the Nazis had performed "euthanasia" on more than six million people.
Curiously, the German "euthanasia" campaign had little if any effect on public opinion in America regarding voluntary active euthanasia.10 Efforts to legalize active euthanasia continued after the war but with no success.Washington State is operating under the 1979 Natural Death Act. This act states that patients in a terminal condition who have signed an advance directive (i.e. a living will) can have life-sustaining procedures withdrawn or withheld. Some of the additional provisions of the act include: 1) the advance living will directive may include personalized instructions by the patient, 2) there will be immunity from liability for health professionals complying with the directive, 3) a physician who is unwilling to comply with the directive must make reasonable efforts to transfer the patient to another physician, and 4) a terminal condition must be certified in writing by two physicians.14
In addition to the Natural Death Act, case law has established certain principles relating to the right to die naturally. In 1983, the Washington State Supreme Court held, in In re Colyer,15 that a man, acting as his wife's guardian, was authorized to exercise her right to withdraw ventilator support; even though she had not signed a living will. This decision enunciated the law in Washington concerning patients who did not sign a prior directive in accordance to the Natural Death Act. Since there was evidence presented that Mrs. Colyer would not have wanted to be kept alive in such a state, the court found that the Natural Death Act's failure to address such cases does not take away from the patient's constitutionally derived right to refuse medical treatmentIn addition to the living will statute and case law, the Durable Power of Attorney and the Informed Consent statutes provide further legal recourse for making decisions in Washington State regarding the withdrawal of life-sustaining procedures. If an individual has conferred to another the Durable Power of Attorney for health care decisions, that person can make the decision to withdraw life-sustaining treatments for the patient if the patient is unable to do so.22 The Informed Consent statute specifies a hierarchy of individuals who can consent to health care on behalf of incompetent patients. The hierarchy is as follows: 1) a guardian, 2) the Durable Power of Attorney for health care, 3) spouse, 4) adult children, 5) parents, and 6) siblings. Decisions must be made by the member of the highest class that exists, and a consensus from lower classes is not necessary

why do bad things happen to "good" people?

Why does this happen to me?
What have I done to deserve this? For no mistake of mine these things happen to me.
These are some of complaints we hear from a lot of people. Is it their karma that is working or is it a test that GOD gives us or is it just a coincidence of events .
Whatever the cause of these problems,we have to grit and bear with them ,learn from themand deal with them.We have to think in terms of "problems" instead of as "curses"or as "difficulties".