PASSIVE EUTHANASIA IN THE LIGHT OF ARIEL SHARON S DEATH

Abstract

Euthanasia, which means good or easy death, has continued to generate heated controversy in countries and jurisdiction where the concept has been legalized and in places where debates on whether to legalize or criminalize it are still on-going. While Proponents of the concept are of the view that it will be futile to continue to expend tax-payers money on an incurably ill person when it is clear he/she will not survive the illness, opponents on the other hand, believed strongly that illness of whatever form should never be a basis for taking one self s life. This paper therefore seeks to examine the death of Ariel Sharon the former Israeli prime minister who died on Saturday, 12 January 2014 after being in comma for eight (8) years. It will at the end show that, like Sharon, terminally ill person on life support machines should be catered for until natural death occurs.