Brief History of Euthanasia

It is believed that euthanasia started in ancient Greece and Rome around the fifth century B.C. They did this by abortions and every now and then performed a mercy killing. Even though doctors were supposed to follow the Hippocratic Oath, many did not and therefore would end up giving patients poison if they asked them to. During the Middle Ages, euthanasia was pretty much out of the question. If one committed suicide, the law in Europe was for the body to be “dragged through the streets or nailed to a barrel and left to drift downriver” (procon.org). During the Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries euthanasia was a topic of discussion. However, people continued to reject euthanasia and assisted suicide. It wasn’t until 1828, for the first American law to make assisted suicide illegal. Although America outlawed euthanasia and assisted suicide, some states were still trying to get a law passed at the state level. During the 1930s, euthanasia started to gain support in the US and societies who were in favor of it started to pop up not only in the US, but in England as well. However, World War Two would change euthanasia forever. Hitler and the Nazis killed hundreds of thousands of people using euthanasia. Hitler and company did this by gassing, drugs, and starving the people. This put a halt on the euthanasia movement as Americans grew less fond of euthanasia. A poll asked Americans in 1950 whether euthanasia was okay and “only 36 percent answered ‘yes’ approximately 10 percent less than in the late 1930s” (procon.org). The late 20^th and early 21^st century would be the time for euthanasia. The Netherlands would be the first country in the world to legalize euthanasia, and Belgium would legalize it soon after the Netherlands did. Australia did allow euthanasia for a brief time in the mid-90s as well. In 1998, Oregon would be the first US state to allow euthanasia and Washington and Montana would follow.



"Holocaust Timeline: Nazi Euthanasia." The History Place. Web. 01 May 2012.
           http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/h-euthanasia.htm.

"Euthanasia - ProCon.org." Euthanasia. Web. 01 May 2012.
           http://euthanasia.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000130.