Some people believe that it is a human right to choose when to die. After all, it is you life! For this reason they believe that euthanasia should be legal and readily available, just like it is in Switzerland.
One of the main reasons against euthanasia is religion. Most religions prohibit ending someone else’s or your own life, and that is the reason why many people are against euthanasia.
It may not be necessary. “Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary situation” This is a saying with means that what is a problem now may not be a problem in the future. For example, someone in pain may be able to take strong painkillers to cure this. People who are unhappy may find something/someone else to make them happy. Or the doctors may be wrong. The illness may not be terminal, or they may end up finding a cure in the person’s lifetime. Life is a precious thing, and it should not be thrown away at the first sign of hardship.
Family/close friends may be upset with the situation. They might be distraught that even with loving friends and family a person is still not happy with life. It will be a burden that will be carried around by loved ones for the rest of their lives.
The main reason in the eyes of the law is that people may take advantage of it. There may be a large sum of money in someone’s will, and people may kill them to get to the money quickly. When questioned by the law, they will simply say that the person wanted to die and that they begged them to kill them. Even if they had measures to stop this like videos, or letters, or a signature, these can still be faked.
One of the beliefs of Christianity is that life is the most precious gift from God. So suicide is basically declining this great gift, and wanting to throw away life despite this. They also believe only God has the right to decide when a person will die. Because of this any type of act which ends a life be it abortion, murder or suicide, is wrong and a sin.
“ They would say that it is only when a person has a relationship with God, that they have any real 'quality of life' - [Jesus said] 'I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).
This quote from the Bible tells us that suicide is not acceptable, because even if life is bad, you should still strive to gain spirituality, and that is the most important thing, not your quality of life on earth. Suffering is also supposed to bring you closer to God, as it is similar to the sufferings Christ had to go through. For the reasons above Christianity as a whole.
However, treatment can be denied even if it would prolong life, this is not euthanasia but it is seen as a natural death.
Roman Catholics believe that if someone was in a large amount of pain, and they were given painkillers to deal with this, and as a result they died, this is not a sin as it was simply a by product of treatment.
Hindu’s believe Ahimsa, which is the teachings that they follow. One of these teaching is doing no harm. Killing any living thing is seen as doing harm because the soul and body get separated at the wrong time and not naturally, and therefore affects the karma of the person who killed the other person, and the person who died (in the cases of euthanasia and suicide.) Hindu’s believe in reincarnation, and karma is very important to this because the more karma you have, the better quality of life you will have when you are reborn. A person who leads an excellent life will break free of the birth death cycle and this is the ultimate for a Hindu. Dharma is a Hindu’s responsibility as a Hindu. One of them is looking after and respecting the elderly (since most of the people who get nasty terminal illnesses are old because of the modern medicine, humans are living longer and the body sometimes can’t quite catch up with this) and Hindu’s don’t see killing an old person as looking after them.
Some Hindus would argue that this in fact does look after them as it is respecting their decisions and looking after them by ending their suffering .These Hindus also believe that ending a person’s suffering is a good deed, and that it brings more karma.
The only acceptable way to end your own life is Prayopaves, which is basically a person starving themselves to death. This is because it uses natural means, avoiding violence which is against Ashishma, and gives the person time to get into the frame of mind for dying, which is one reason that euthanasia is not allowed, because a person has no time to get into a sannyasin state of mind. Sannyasin means one who has renounced everything, a person with no unfinished businesses and everything in their life sorted. It also gives family and friends a chance to come to terms that a loved one will be dying soon. Suicide is usually a sad time, but with Prayopaves a person usually dies relaxed.
Prayopaves can only be used when a body is ill and death is in the foreseeable future, or when there is no happiness left in life. It can’t be done without being announced.
A Hindu leader by the name of Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami killed himself using this method in 2001, when he had a terminal intestinal cancer.
Jews believe that human life belongs to G** and taking your own life is taking something that G** owns, and that we as human beings have no right to do that.
The fifth commandment is “thou shalt not kill.” Suicide is seen to breech this commandment as a human does not own their life, rather it belongs to G** and only he has the right to take it back when the time comes. It is also seen as not respecting G** as he has set an amount of time for a person to die, and someone who kills themselves or another person completely ignore this.
Destroy not yourselves. Surely Allah is ever merciful to you. Qur’an 4:29
This tells us Muslims are forbidden to harm themselves. The worst harm a person can do themselves is death, so for this reason suicide is not allowed.
The Prophet said: "Amongst the nations before you there was a man who got a wound, and growing impatient (with its pain), he took a knife and cut his hand with it and the blood did not stop till he died. Allah said, 'My Slave hurried to bring death upon himself so I have forbidden him (to enter) Paradise.' "Sahih Bukhari 4.56.669
This quote reinforces this and tells us very simply that in Islam euthanasia is not allowed. Muslims believe that God knows the death of every person down to the exact second, and by killing yourself this is bringing it forwards.
Muslims also believe that any hardship on this earth is a test for the next life, and the way you deal with it reflects what happens to you in the afterlife.
Personally, I believe that euthanasia should not be allowed, and this is for two reasons. People WILL take advantage of the law, and it will be extremely hard to keep track of all of the assisted suicides happening. Proof can be forged quite easily with this modern technology we have nowadays and many lives would be lost, and it would be nearly impossible to tell the difference between murder and euthanasia. Also, where do we draw the line when it comes measuring whether a life is not worth it? There will be thousands of court cases taking place, ranging from absolutely heartbreaking situations to problems that will be over in a couple of months with a bit of hard work, and the latter will waste a lot of time.
The second is religion. I am a Muslim and believe in suffering being a test from God. However I can sympathise with an unreligious person wanting to end their life as they don’t think this way.
Daniel James decided to end his life when he was unable to walk due to a scrum collapsing on him. He was unhappy as he was a naturally athletic person who loved rugby, and without it he thought his life was not worth living. I personally think he could off found something else to make him happy; he was paralysed from the waist down so he could have found something to do. But no one could tell truly how he felt and this is why these situations are very tricky. The Diana Pretty case was also tricky because while she went through a lot of pain and was unable to do things for herself, she has a loving husband who was and children and she could have made those people reason for her to live. However her life must have been hell and I can see why she would want to end her suffering.
I think people should be allowed to die with dignity but that there are other ways besides euthanasia. People should spend their remaining time with those close to them, and should be looked after lovingly, and
When they do die it should be with all the people important to the surrounding them. After they are gone loved ones should reminisce about the memories they had together and how the person was so strong in the way they dealt with the situation. This is dying with dignity.
