Moreover, the result of a patient dependent on life support machines extends to the family. The emotional turmoil to watch your loved one lie unconscious in a ward leaves one lost and helpless. The financial cost of long term use of life support system are costly and may not be affordable to the majority. It would be unfair to put loved ones through the prolonged suffering of watching the patient kept alive on life support system, as well as the heavy financial burden of supporting a patient.
Although these claims are indeed true, detractors perceive the sanctity of life to override any practical concerns at hand. Life is a God-given right and that has to be respected and protected under all circumstances. In the religion perspective, mercy killing would be seen as the involuntary termination of the right to life as the patient would be unable to actively make that decision for himself. This would compromise the patient’s right to life. There have also been cases of miracle recoveries in seemingly incurable conditions. Mercy killing would eliminate all possibilities at hand; no matter now slight a potential successful recovery. The termination of life would be a hefty risk to take. However, this is subjected to different points of views. If we were to approach it from a non-atheist point of view, then life would be perceived as a divine gift. Hence, the individual has no right to take his own life, as it was never his to begin with. Thus, on a religious level, the right to life can be seen as sacred leading us to the necessary conclusion that mercy killing should not be legalized.
Although legalizing mercy killing would open another avenue for low-income families, but it would result in other implications. Its existence may be seen as an immense propensity for abuse. In certain situations, family of the patient may pressure that individual to decide to go through euthanasia to rid them of a financial burden or to gain access to their inheritance. That patient might be pressured to do so as they see themselves as a financial burden and painless killing sounds like an attractive method of suicide. Even if the family is not manipulative, the terminally ill individual might feel guilty about the burden he has created for family and chooses to die on this basis rather than a genuine desire to end his life. Mercy killing would often be perceived as an easy way out of life. As it is defined as the act of killing someone painlessly, many would find it attractive to seek that as a form of escapism.
Despite the fact that euthanasia may be appropriate for patients that have lost both their biological and conscious existence, some may exploit this as a way of easy escape. Research has shown that the ability and threshold of a pain for humans is adaptable. Hence, I do feel that humans are able to overcome situations that one may be facing and euthanasia should not be used as an easy way out. Many would resort to euthanasia if it were to be legalized as it ends people’s suffering quick and immediate. By implementing this, humans would have an easier alternative and this would cause many to give up on their lives easily. The decision of euthanasia lies entirely in the hands of the individual and this would mean that the patient’s loved ones has no say in this matter. Parents would be left helpless but to accept the fact that their child has decided to go through euthanasia. The restriction of the right to have a say in this matter leaves many vulnerable to whatever decision that individual has made. A person’s life does not revolve around himself, but it also affects the people around him. And hence leaving no say to his loved ones makes it disheartening for the people around him.
With euthanasia, one would be likely to have less endurance and resort to the easy way out, escapism. Euthanasia is a form of taking your own life away, which coincides with the definition of suicide. How indifferent are these two entities? Perhaps, euthanasia is just a scientific way of putting across the idea of suicide and therefore I feel that it should not be legalized.
