any otherwise preventable deaths occur. Legalizing euthanasia would save substantial financial resources which could be diverted to more "useful" treatments. These economic concerns already exert pressure to accept euthanasia, and, if accepted, they will inevitability tend to enlarge the category of patients for whom euthanasia is permitted... "Do not tolerate killing". Now is the time for the medical profession to rally in defense of its fundamental moral principles, torepudiate any and all acts of direct and intentional killing by physicians and their agents. We call on the profession and itsleadership to obtain the best advice, regarding both theory and practice, about how to defend the profession's moral center and to resist growing pressures both from without and from within. We call on fellow physicians to say that we will not deliberately kill. We must say also to each of our fellow physicians that we will not tolerate killing of patients and that we shall take disciplinary action against doctors who kill. (Chapman 209) On the other hand some people strongly feel that euthanasia is not bad and should not be looked down upon. Are there no conditions when life is meaningless and should be quietly ended? If a person is subject to pain that won't stop as aresult of a disease that can't be cured, must he or she suffer that pain as long as possible when there are gentle ways of putting an end to life? If a person suffers from a disease that deprives him or her of all memory and makes him or her a helpless lump of flesh that may live on for years. If euthanasia were legalized,it should be admitted that there might be some abuses of virtually every social practice. There is noabsolute guarantee against that. But we do not normally think that a social practice should be precluded simply because it might sometimes be abused. The crucial issue is whether the evil of the abuses would be so great as to outweigh the...
