Free sample term paper on Hinduism:

This term paper project is about how Hinduism responds to medical ethics; it will consist of issues about euthanasia, abortion, suicide and animal research. It will have many facts with some opinions and hopefully won’t be bias.

Euthanasia is ending a person’s life deliberately, but for compassionate reasons. Euthanasia is illegal in Britain, but the Voluntary Euthanasia Society campaigns for the law to be changed to allow it within a strictly controlled legal framework. This is the situation in the Netherlands, where euthanasia remains illegal, but provided certain procedures are carefully followed, a doctor who administers euthanasia will not be prosecuted in the courts.

But even in the Netherlands it is not as simple as some think, here are the guidelines:

• There must be persistent, informed and voluntary requests by a patient who is aware of all the alternative treatments.
• There must be relentless suffering.
• There must be an independent medical appraisal by at least one other doctor supporting the decision.
• After death, the doctor must complete an exhaustive questionnaire and inform the coroner, who will visit to view the body and to verify the facts. The Ministry of Justice decides on the basis of this report whether or not to prosecute the doctor.

Hinduism believes that euthanasia is wrong and should be totally abolished. A must perform their dharma (their duty) in order to achieve freedom for the soul. Since the quality of life in one lifetime depends very much on the actions of a previous life, suffering is seen as the consequence of wrong actions. If the soul has acquired bad karma through doing wrong actions in a previous existence, then the person will suffer in the present. If euthanasia is performed, the pain has come t-o a quicker end. Then the person will carry on suffering in his next life. (read full text…)