According to Pearsall & Trumble, euthanasia is explained as ‘the bringing about of a gentle and easy death for someone suffering from an incurable and painful disease or in an irreversible coma’. Oxford Dictionary defines euthanasia as gentle and easy death: bringing of this especially in the case of incurable and painful Сиалис инструкция. Euthanasia has always been a controversial topic in Malaysia. This article will discuss euthanasia from the moral perspective and its legal effect in Malaysia and Canada. The way euthanasia is carried out in Malaysia and Canada will be compared. Although both are commonwealth countries, a line can be drawn between them because euthanasia is illegal in Malaysia but legal in Canada.
In Malaysia, no laws specify the legal consequence of euthanasia. Meanwhile, there is a law in Penal Code that deal with culpable homicide amounting to murder. Section 300 of the Malaysian Penal Code states that murder is constituted if the act that results in death is carried out with the aim to do so. In certain circumstances, it involves active voluntary euthanasia where culpable homicide is not murder when the victim over 18 years old is giving consent to suffer death, or takes the risk of death. This fall under exception 5 of section 300 Penal Code. In other way to say it, the provision of euthanasia is not clearly defined in any Malaysian written law and the action of euthanasia itself (culpable homicide amounting to murder in the Penal Code) is illegal.
Canada is one of the countries legalized euthanasia by allowing doctor to kill patient by drugs. The Canadian Parliament passed federal legislation in June 2016 that enables eligible Canadian people to seek medical assistance in dying (MAID). There are only physicians dan nurse practitioners can provide MAID to eligible person who has a grievous and irremediable medical condition. Additionally, their death had to be “reasonably foreseeable,” and at least two physicians had to agree with the request for euthanasia.
Later, the law was amended to permit those who are not terminally ill to choose death, greatly expanding the pool of candidates. In 2021, the Government of Canada announced that changes to MAID officially came into effect. MAID cases have increased 32.4% from 2020 to 2021. There were 10,064 euthanasia deaths recorded in 2021.
