Impact of advanced medical technologies on the legal status of euthanasia

Kovačević, Dušica (2020) Impact of advanced medical technologies on the legal status of euthanasia. In: Conference Proceedings : Transformative Technologies: Legal and Ethical Challenges of the 21st Century = Zbornik radova : Transformativne tehnologije: pravni i etički izazovi XXI vijeka. Faculty of Law, University of Banja Luka = Pravni fakultet Univerziteta, Banja Luka, pp. 511-530. ISBN 978-99976-54-02-1

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Abstract

Science and technology form the basis of human community development, of the improvement of living standards and of the quality of human life. Sophisticated technology is becoming ‘the incarnation of immortality’ of the human being. Medical technology innovations generate a significant number of new drugs, devices and diagnostic tests that improve health, reduce risks and extend life. What medical technology can do for patients today has changed radically from what could have been done in the past ten years. This paper will highlight in particular the advances in the field of medicine regarding its effect on terminally ill persons. The ethical dimensions of euthanasia in relation to the collision between moral goods resulting from the exponential increase in the number of medical technologies are discussed. It is more and more evident the pointlessness of using new knowledge and technology of medicine in certain individual cases. The focus of the paper is on the possibility of a ‘good death’- euthanasia, as an alternative to the rusty option of prolonged and painful dying. Therefore, an attempt is made to show the link between medical prosperity and the impact on the more pronounced need to introduce euthanasia into medical practice. Advancements in medical technology have made the final stage of terminally ill patients very likely to become prolonged and dependent on them. The boundaries of life and death are thus constantly being shifting. Professional and scientific progress has transformed the last phase of human life into a long, difficult and torturous process of dying that is, conducting dysthanasia. Due to this condition, the need to actively consider the legalization of euthanasia becomes more pronounced.

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