Euthanasia – By Oscar E V Fernando

Image Source:-St David’s Cathedral

Euthanasia is defined as an act or practice of ending the life of a person who is suffering from an incurable and often painful or distressing illness-in ‘a gentle and easy death’

On the other hand, suicide is defined as an instance of killing oneself deliberately.

Science, medically and otherwise has developed rapidly-but has it given a place to morality in this fast pace of material development?

Some say this and some say that!

It is worth considering whether all medical advancements help humanity;

·      If they treat people as objects

·      If applied only to-people who are not considered a burden and therefore deserve to be helped.

·      If it is based on the utilitarian view of a person-who becomes useless: a set of values based on the belief that an action is morally right only if it benefits the majority of people

·      If equated with a cost

·      If medically considered of no improvement

·      If in pain that could no longer be avoided.

·      That only the common good should be considered.

·      If they focus only of illness but not on the patient to be cared for.

·      If technology is not for service of people without reducing them to things

·      If they distinguish between who still deserves to be cured and who does not because they are a burden to be thrown awa

Arguments for euthanasia:

·      allowing people to ‘die with dignity’ is kinder than forcing them to continue their lives with suffering.

·      that every patient has a right to choose when to die.

·      belief that euthanasia can be safely regulated by government legislation

Arguments against euthanasia

·      Alternative treatments are available, such as palliative care and hospices. We do not have to kill the patient to kill the symptoms.  Nearly all pain can be relieved.

·      There is no ‘right’ to be killed and there are real dangers of ‘slippery slopes’. Opening the doors to voluntary euthanasia could lead to non-voluntary and involuntary euthanasia, by giving doctors the power to decide when a patient’s life is not worth living. 

·      In the Netherlands in 1990 around 1,000 patients were killed without their request.

·      We could never truly control it. Reports from the Netherlands, where euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are legal, reveal that doctors do not always report it.

·      The assumption that patients should have a right to die would impose on doctors a duty to kill, thus restricting the autonomy of the doctor. 

·      The ‘right to die’ for some people might well become a ‘duty to die’ by others, particularly those who are vulnerable or dependent upon others.

A Religious view point is as follows;

·      accompany patients throughout their illness

·      provide palliative care and hospice, which will help contribute to “a culture and practices more attentive to the value of every person.

·      instead of encouraging euthanasia, to warn persons not to be discouraged by lack of understanding by modernist thought to take the easy way out.

·      concentrate on technological improvements in prevention of diseases like cancer by regular tests and healthy habits.

·      “The best and truest prevention, in fact, is a healthy environment and a lifestyle that respects the human body” and how it works, and for this by living in places with lesser stress avoiding major city centers, that subject the body to constant stress” because of their fast-paced lifestyle and exposure to pollutants.

·      take care of the natural world, “our common home which we have to respect so that it respects us back.

·      Safeguard the environment and the fight against tumors and other maladies then become two sides of the same problem, two complementary aspects of the same battle.

There is also a strong religious belief that a human being created by the Almighty Creator in His image and Likeness should not be killed by another-debated though!

Above is only a tip of the ‘Iceberg-Euthanasia’

Readers can delve further into the subject on internet or otherwise.

The interest of the writer is to point out the visible chaos in the world-also debatable-and to ponder whether a look into the face of morality is worth the while!

Oscar E V Fernando