Euthanasia - yesterday, today, tomorrow

O evtanaziji, ki so jo skozi zgodovino najpogosteje definirali kot dobro, lahko, nebolečo smrt oziroma jo v sodobnem času definirajo kot odvzem življenja s soglasjem osebe, se razpravlja že vrsto let. Razprave dosežejo svoj vrhunec ob posameznih ekscesnih dogodkih in nato poniknejo, vendar nikoli ne zamrejo. Hiter razvoj medicine tako na farmakološkem, kot tudi tehničnem področju, je pripeljal do mejnih situacij, ko se je boj za človekovo življenje, oziroma boj proti smrti, sprevrgel v manipuliranje z življenjem. Pojavil se je dvom o delovanju medicine na podlagi začrtanih etičnih načel, kot so načelo avtonomije, neškodljivosti in dobrodelnosti oziroma koristnosti in načelo pravičnosti. Strokovnjaki z različnih področij medicine, prava, bioetike, filozofije so bili zato na podlagi obstoječega stanja, argumentov in mnenja prebivalstva prisiljeni začeti s spreminjanjem starih, zasidranih smernic, protokolov, kodeksov in tudi zakonov. V magistrski nalogi smo podrobneje po obdobjih predstavili razvoj, poglede ter stališča, ki so privedla do današnje interpretacije evtanazije. Poglobili smo se v stališča etike ter etična načela in tudi v argumente za in proti evtanaziji. Prav tako smo povzeli pravne spremembe tekom časa in najnovejše zakone na tem področju.Euthanasy was in the past mostly defined as good, easy, painless death. Today it is, provisionaly, defined as taking life with the informed consent of dying person. It is usualy that discussions escalate around specific delicate cases and then slowly calm down, but never truly dissapear. Fast development in the field of medicine, pharmacy and technology in general, brought us to the borderline situations, when the fight for human life or fight against the death respectively, has sometimes changed to manipulation with life. A doubt has emerged about medicine acting in accordance to ethical standards such as the principle of human autonomy, harmlessness and good intention or principle of usefulness and justness respectfully. Based on the new knowledge, arguments and general opinion, authorities from different fields of science such as medicine, law, bioethics, philosophy, had been forced to change the old directions, protocols, codes and laws. In this work, the development together with different views and standpoints which brought to present interpretation of euthanasia are presented in details. The ethical standpoints and principles were analysed in details together with arguments for and against the euthanasia. Additionally, legal changes during the history and current state of legislation from this field were summarised