Part A
Introduction
The word Euthanasia is taken from the Greek Language that means a good health. The euthanasia is defined as the deliberate end of life by another person on the request of the person who dies. One of the common forms of euthanasia is the assisted suicide. Generally, several experts define euthanasia in a wider sense. It includes all decisions planned to bring the death of an individual to limit or prevent the suffering of that person. The paper compared laws related to euthanasia between two countries that are United Kingdom and the Netherlands. On 1st April 2002, termination of life was requested by one of the person since then act of assisted suicide has come into practice and became legal. Netherlands was the first country in the world where euthanasia was legalized. On the other hand, in UK, the euthanasia is illegal. In UK, it is unacceptable in practice as well as from a legal point of view. However, in practice, the adult can refuse to treatment while children and incompetent adults will get treatment into their best interest.
The essay aims to discuss euthanasia law in the United Kingdom and Netherlands. The essay will begin with the reason that why euthanasia is legal or illegal in any of these two countries and its influences and role of society values and beliefs. The essay will be summarized with main points.
Main Body
Euthanasia has no significant position in the law of United Kingdom in which it is considered as a manslaughter or as a murder. On the other hand, in Netherland it is legalized and doctors are allowed to perform euthanasia. One of the main reasons of the legalization of euthanasia in Netherlands is the debate from last 30 to 40 years between courts and health professional regarding its importance to save the patient from pain. While in United Kingdom, the reason of its illegal status is related to large number of factors such as religious opposition and other ethical issues. In both Netherlands and United Kingdom, distinct legal bodies are there that are responsible for developing and amending medical laws. In United Kingdom, council of general medical appears in development of every law that is related to the medicine. It is considered as one of the important reasons of illegal status of Euthanasia in United Kingdom. In United Kingdom, several protests have been done by doctors and certain celebrities to change the current law of prosecution. However, campaign have also started in favour of these law by different organizations such as the disabilities group Not Dead Yet UK (NDYUK) to support palliative care instead of euthanasia in UK.
Due to different legal status of Euthanasia in both countries, it impacts greatly on the number of deaths related to euthanasia in both countries. The survey between 2008 and 2010 has shown that 1.3 percent and o.4 percent of deaths occurred due to voluntary and involuntary euthanasia. On the other hand, in United Kingdom 0.33 percent and 0.16 % of deaths are occurred by involuntary euthanasia and voluntary euthanasia respectively. It has been clearly shown with this study that deaths by euthanasia in Netherland is three times more than the United Kingdom. It is of course due to legalization in the Netherlands. Besides this, the rate of palliative care in Netherlands has been reduced by almost 50% and in more than 65% of cases of palliative care, physician were not involved. In 12 percent of cases only, physician were consulted for the palliative care. It is believed that such reduction palliative care in Netherland is associated with the legalization of Euthanasia in the Netherlands. In United Kingdom, several individuals and group of individuals raised their voice for the legalization of euthanasia. Large number of doctors want the euthanasia to be legalized to prevent patient from pain and financial burden, when outcomes of the treatment in also null.
Euthanasia is considered as one of the sensitive issues because it is associated with belief, values and attitudes of people in the society. Beliefs and values of every individual is different. That’s why, for some people euthanasia is good, while some people considered it negative. Healthcare professionals think that it should be legalized because patient at terminal stage of disease have a very less chance to survive with quality of life. On the other hand, people have a value system which is more often connected with their religion. They believe that euthanasia is a murder of a person. Therefore, they always show resistance towards the acceptance and legalization of this law. From the perspective of people, active or passive euthanasia is not compatible with the professional duty of taking care of ill patients. Several people think that it challenges the primary duty of physicians, which is that of saving lives. Data from different studies have shown that people from United Kingdom are more towards the favour of legalization of Euthanasia.
Conclusion
The essay compared the laws related to Euthanasia in United Kingdom and Netherlands. Euthanasia is defined as an intentional death carried by another person with the request of a person who wants to die. It is illegal in United Kingdom, while it is legal in Netherlands. It has created several impacts on the voluntary and involuntary deaths in both these region. For instance, the rate of deaths due voluntary and involuntary euthanasia is highest in Netherland as compared to Unite Kingdom. There are several reasons that are responsible for different legal status of euthanasia in both countries such as legal bodies and many more.
In the end, I believe that law related to Euthanasia is better in Netherland as compared to the United Kingdom. I believe that death by euthanasia is better than living with pain or living with poor quality of life. Therefore, it is necessary to consider opinions about the patient and respect his autonomy if care or treatment will provide no benefits to the patient.
Part B
Communication Skills
It is important for the person who is associated with a legal professional to have a strong written as well as oral communication. It will help them to carry the duties efficiently. Excellent skills of listening is necessary when working with different client as it will help an individual to develop relationship and build confidence. Written communication is also important to draft legal document and letters. It is important to have a knowledge about several aspects of legal and technical language to convey the message in the concise and clear way. It is important to have interpersonal skills. A person who is affiliated with law professional has to work in groups as well. These skills will help him or her to establish effective working relationships with colleagues. Communication ability will make it easy for an individual to work in a group and team.
Academic Ability
The law profession is very demanding and most employers are looking for candidates who have the ability to draw knowledgeable conclusions and process difficult information. It is necessary to have skills to show good performance under pressure and have the capability to cope with stress and pressure. Besides this, employers are also appreciated those people who are also involved in extra-curricular activities such as joining of sports club and many more. All these things will make an individual to understand every aspect of the life that will help him or her in legal profession.
Attention to detail
A sharp eye of accuracy is important for the success of the legal career. It is believed that single word can change the meaning of whole contract or clause. On the other hand, poor written document can give client a bad impression that may damage the reputation of the firm. It is important for law student to work on spelling, grammar and punctuations as it will give extra edge to individual while applying for a job. It is necessary to read newspaper and other English paper to improve attention to detail.
