Euthanasia

between taboo and freedom

Abstract

The word euthanasia means good death or painless death; in other words, a more pitiful death, without suffering (physical or moral). This theme is approached in this article aiming angling the many factors involved in euthanasia, as its conceptualization, society’s vision, philosophical vision, ethical debates, moral and bioethics, and the fundamental rights of the human being in Brazil and in countries where euthanasia is allowed. The research methodology used in the development of this theme is the dialectic and the approach method is the historical, bringing together many scopes where euthanasia is found, delineating historical evolution, origins, and observing the reasons so that euthanasia is stopped being considered a taboo, mainly in Brazil, having in mind that it is a fundamental right, being it the right to dignity, and it also correlates with the right to life. This essay’s focus is to demystify euthanasia and make it so that it gets associated mainly with human dignity and with an individual right, also based with the individual’s autonomy, since it is something personal and intrinsic. Life and death are unavoidable processes but being able to choose how your own death is going to be, without pain and suffering, is a choice that must be increasingly accepted in the whole world.