LEGAL CULTURE AND LEGISLATION ON EUTHANASIA: A NEW LEVEL OF LEGAL REGULATION OR THE COLLAPSE OF THE LEGAL SYSTEM?

Abstract

Euthanasia is a voluntary withdrawal from the life of a person suffering from an incurable disease or having a disease that causes him physical and mental suffering. This practice has been used since the period of antiquity, when in Ancient Rome and Sparta, the elderly and the disabled were thrown from the mountains. The need for such a policy was explained by the inability of the state to support weak members in the conditions of regular military campaigns.  A similar position was supported by the Nazis of nazi Germany, who created gas chambers as an analogue of "easy death" for disabled citizens, which included people with mental disorders; people suffering from epilepsy; disabled people with any health abnormalities; patients who had been treated for more than 5 years. In addition to persons with various pathologies, representatives of Gypsy, Jewish, and Polish nationalities were included in the same group. It becomes obvious that in such a context, euthanasia is perceived as a clear abuse of the state to dispose of the lives of its citizens.  In modern foreign countries and the Russian Federation, this procedure seems to be a way to satisfy the desire of a person suffering from an incurable or severe disease of both a somatic and mental nature, in a dignified and rapid termination of his existence.  To what extent such a desire to classify oneself as deceased is voluntary and conscious and whether it fits into modern legal norms is considered in the presented publication, which at the same time offers more constructive ways to help individuals in need.