Euthanasia is morally wrong whether voluntary or not, it protects the rights of one group while discriminating against the rights of another. The legislation of euthanasia aims to protect the rights of the young and healthy while discriminating against vulnerable members of our society, specifically the aged, sick and lonely. Likewise the legislation of abortion protects the rights of the mother to have control of her body while discriminating against her baby’s right to life. If euthanasia were to become legal world wide it would send a message to the vulnerable people, elderly, sick, depressed or distressed, that they can request an early death as an easy way out. These people however should be encouraged by care and support of life and not seek death.
Our leaders should strengthen the rights of the vulnerable in our society, their right to be protected form the pressure to end their own lives. Their right to live the last days of their lives with love and care from their families and caregivers, without the presence of euthanasia looming over them, casting a shadow of fear and suspicion in the last years of their life.
Correlated with the problem of euthanasia is the question of living wills. A living will is a document written in advance to give instructions regarding medical care where the person is no longer able to do so directly. However there are numerous problems with these living wills. The language used is often vague and leaves much room for interpretations. Another problem is that no one can foresee all of the particulars relating to a future illness or injury. No one really knows what he would want to be done in the case of heart attack, stroke or cancer ten years before it occurs, it is even possible for new treatments to be developed that did not exist when the living will was written. So therefore someone who would have been able to live longer because of these new advancements would be killed because of this living will.
It must be stated firmly that nothing and no one should in any way permit the killing of an innocent human being, whether a fetus, infant, adult, elderly person or someone suffering from an incurable disease or is dying. This is a violation of the divine law, an offence against the dignity of the human person, a crime against life and an attack on humanity.
In conclusion once euthanasia is legalised it will not only be the dying that will want this merciful end but others. Soon pain free patients who feel that their medical condition leaves them with no real quality of life, depressed teenagers, the mentally ill, handicapped children whose parents wish them to be dead, infants with severe disabilities will all be killed unnecessarily. We do not have the right to take the life of someone nor authorise it for it was not us who made life but God and He is the only one with the authority to take back what He gave us.
Christianne Pollonais
Lower 6
