Euthanasia, at the moment is illegal throughout the world apart from in the State of Oregon in USA, where there is a law specifically allowing doctors to prescribe lethal drugs for the purpose of euthanasia. In the Netherlands it is practiced widely, although, in fact, it remains illegal.
Majority of religions disapprove Euthanasia, Christianity disapproves it according to the belief human being have a special place in God’s heart, eyes and in his creation:
“For you created my inmost being; you (God) knit me together in my mother’s womb”(psalm 139)
So the alternative to euthanasia in Christianity is ‘Hospice movement’. The kind of care hospice give to the patients is very distinctive for they offer tender loving care. The three aims of hospices are:
· To relieve pain.
· To enable patients and families to face up to death.
· To care for emotional needs of the relatives.
A hospice offers care to the patients and their families at the most difficult stages in their lives.
I cannot decide if euthanasia is right or wrong. I believe that everyone has the right to choose how he or she live and die. No one has the right to judge that another's life is not worth living. The basic right to life should not be abridged because someone decides that someone else's quality of life" is too low. Once we base the right to life on "quality of life" standards, there is no logical place to draw the line. Also, people need not be killed to "put them out of their misery" when they are seriously ill. Almost all pain can be relieved by modern medical techniques, so is it or is it not necessary to kill patients who can't be cured?
Not everybody will have an easy death. Some terminal pain cannot be controlled, even with the best of care and the strongest of drugs. Other distressing symptoms, which come with diseases, such as sickness, no mobility, breathlessness and fever cannot always be relieved. Pain is not always the issue - quality of life is too.
People should not be left lingering in pain. They should not have to suffer when death is inevitable. People do have the right to commit suicide, although it is a tragic and individual act. However euthanasia is not suicide. It is not a private act; you have the support of family and friends. Euthanasia is about letting a person assist another’s death to save them from long painful deaths.
People have many different reasons for wanting to end their life by committing suicide:
1) Some are severely depressed over a long interval. To them, suicide may be a "permanent solution to a temporary problem." There is a better solution for most clinically depressed people is treatment, using counseling and/or medication. Such treatment can give to the person decades of enjoyable life which would have been lost if they committed suicide.
2) They live in excessive, chronic pain. Some, due to poverty or lack of health-care coverage cannot afford pain-killing medication. Others are denied adequate painkillers because of their physician's lack of knowledge, inadequate training, or specific beliefs. There is a consensus that suicide in this case is not a preferred solution; a better approach is proper management of pain through medication.
3) They have a terminal illness and do not want to diminish their assets by incurring large medical costs as their death approaches. As an act of generosity, they would rather die sooner, and pass on their assets to their beneficiaries.
4) A serious disorder or disease has adversely affected their quality of life to the point where they no longer wish to continue living.
5) They have lost their independence and must be cared for continually. Some feel that this causes an unacceptable loss of personal dignity.
6) Some are concerned about the future and want to have suicide available as an option.
Many people argue, however, that a person who is terminally ill may make a miraculous recovery - it has happened in the past. Most terminally ill people whose pain and sufferings are relieved by excellent care, given by hospices, hospitals and GPs do not require making decisions about euthanasia. It is only needed for those whose pain is not relived with any form of care or whose bodily disintegration is beyond bearing. Medical advances in recent years have made it possible to keep terminally ill people alive for beyond a length of time, without any hope of recovery or improvement. For this reason the ‘living ill’ has come into use in the USA as part of the right-to-die principle. Most states now legally allow the making of such wills that instruct, GPs etc., to suspend treatment or refuse life-support measures in hopeless cases.
A pro-longed life is intolerable for people with a condition, which leaves the brain alert but eventually shuts down all bodily functions and skills of communicating. How can people be expected to live like this? For people like this and also people in PVS, (persistent vegetative state) I believe that their legal representatives or close family should have the choice and the trust to let them live a prolonged life or to end their life and let them die with dignity. If people could make the decision themselves then I believe that the option of euthanasia should be open to them.
On the other hand, people believe that no one has the right to play God.
Christians believe that:
‘We are made in the image of God and therefore human life is God’s gift to us and is uniquely precious - we are not the owners of life, but it’s minders’,
We belong to God because he made us. Many religions follow this belief; so do not believe in suicide and assisted dying.
The opposition to euthanasia does not mean that people insist on medical treatment at all costs. Good medical practice is the alternative to euthanasia. Sometimes a distinction is made between active euthanasia (e.g. Giving a lethal injection) and positive euthanasia (withdrawing treatment). However it is misleading to describe withholding or discontinuing treatment as ‘euthanasia’ unless it is done with the intention of killing the patient. Sometimes a treatment may be properly withdrawn even with the patient’s consent, for example, when it is ineffective, merely prolonging the dying process in a terminally ill patient.
In the newspapers there have been many articles on euthanasia. In one newspaper headline ‘The woman who feared a birthday’. "I'm sorry. Lisette has gone on a trip and will not be returning."
That was the chilling answering machine message left by a friend of retired French academic. Lisette Nigot, who ended her life because she did not want to turn 80.
Ms Nigot, a supporter of voluntary euthanasia, overdosed at her Perth home despite being in good health. Never married, she would have turned 80 on December 15.
A friend, who did not want to be named, said Ms Nigot was very intelligent but suffered with a heart problem for which she was taking medication.
" Ms Nigot wrote in her final statement. "I am terminating my life now because I want to have control over my death."
Another headline ‘Canadian man says he killed disabled daughter out of mercy’.
TORONTO (January 18, 2001 6:23 p.m), A farmer sentenced to 10 years in prison for killing his severely disabled daughter said Thursday that he doesn't regret killing her.
"I have said I could lie in a dirty old jail cell easier than she could lie on the floor, suffering like she was," said Robert Latimer, who admitted to piping exhaust fumes into his pickup to kill his 12-year-old daughter.
A ruling Thursday by Canada's Supreme Court effectively sends Latimer to prison, ending seven years of legal limbo.
So, should we allow people the choice of when they die? The debate about euthanasia props up all the time, even when it is not publicised, it is still happening secretly all the time. As an issue euthanasia refuses to die. Everyone has their own opinion on it, with many people wanting to see a change in the law.
This issue needs a lot of thought. Many people agree with voluntary euthanasia, many disagree but there is also a large amount of people undecided on the matter. The time will come when the Government and medical services will have to open their eyes to euthanasia, and there will be a lot of debate on the subject. Until then the euthanasia debate will continue to linger, like a terminal disease.
