Euthanasia is a permanent solution to a long-term problem. Offering euthanasia to patients near death is a controversial topic with a plethora of opinions. Supporters of euthanasia say it is justified as long as the patient gives consent. Euthanasia is not justifiable due to ethical and legal issues, the disoriented mental state of euthanasia patients, and religious beliefs that condemn euthanasia. A British doctor, Lord Platt of Cambridge, said that the majority of doctors are reluctant to administer actual euthanasia. . Another British doctor, Lord Brock of London, argued that if euthanasia were legal, the government should take on the role of intermediary. He argues that government oversight of euthanasias could prove very costly. According to Brock, the government would choose the location for the euthanasia, the time and the people who would administer the deadly drug. The cost of euthanasia would prove to be an unnecessary financial burden. He also says that killing patients is not part of the job description of doctors and nurses (“Euthanasia” 229-230). The main function of doctors is to improve the health of their patients. This belief is reinforced in the Hippocratic Oath that all doctors must swear by. The oath states that “I swear to perform, to the best of my ability and judgment…I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] shall be required” (Tyson). Nowhere in this oath does it say that doctors should take the lives of their patients. Many doctors do not want to make ethical decisions in gray areas involving the life of another human being. Administering euthanasia to a patient is essentially a doctor he... middle of paper... ilton). Religious beliefs such as the Bible and the Quran openly condemn suicide and murder. The act of euthanasia involves the extinction of a person's life force. Abrahamic religions see this as murder and a direct violation of God's teachings to his people (Gielen, Branden, Broeckaert 1-17). Euthanasia is administered to near-dead patients with the aim of alleviating suffering. Many doctors, however, do not want to violate the Hippocratic Oath or encroach on their religious beliefs. Often these patients accept euthanasia due to poor judgment resulting from the pain of the disease and the physiological effects of the drug. Doctors are reluctant to administer it because of the combination of religious beliefs and the ethical and legal baggage that euthanasia brings with it. Hopefully, more and more people will begin to understand why euthanasia is not justifiable.