Who doesn’t want to know about as complex thing as mercy killing or Euthanasia? Do you think we all have the right to decide our death?
You’ll get to know about this “assisted suicide” as you’ll go through this article. We will discuss basic concepts, pros, and cons for a better understanding.
Read More: Pros and Cons of Death Sentence
What Is Euthanasia?
Euthanasia is a legal practice of putting someone’s life to end when the person is suffering from an incurable and painful disease. This practice is done under the supervision of doctors and is allowed for terminally ill-patients only (in most of the countries).
Euthanasia is entirely legal in many countries, legal under few circumstances in some countries and utterly illegal in countries like Pakistan, Saudi, etc.
In the early 2000s, it was one of the most discussed topics in Bioethics.
Let us dig deep into more detail and discuss its pros and cons one by one.
Pros of Euthanasia
1. The Best Last Option
We all have seen someone so ill that once we wished that only death will end their suffering. It’s the same thought process of a terminally ill patient who wants to end his suffering, who can’t seem to have a painless life, so he wants a painless death.
Imagine someone has bedsores, breathing with a life-supporting system, peeing in a bag, taking nutrients ( it’s not same as eating food) through the pipe, bath it’s just a towel scrubbing, can’t walk, can’t talk just lying on a bed with hundreds of pipes going around their body.
Isn’t it painful to just imagine? Now think of the pain of the person going through all of this. For someone in this condition life with dignity is the last best option to end their suffering.
2. Right to Die
Do you think you’re right to live? If yes, then why you never thought that you also have the right to die or to end your life? An individual who is going through lots of medical processes every day, is under medical observation 24/7 and have zero will to live, has the right to choose death over this suffering, this pain.
It’s everyone’s right to make decisions about his life, and no individual who is living his life typically has any right to judge or question his judgment.
3. Feeling of Being a Burden
According to the research held in Freiburg University, Germany there’s a surge initiated by a virus that influences our hippocampus hence affecting our emotions when we’re not feeling well or as in our discussion when we’re bedridden due to certain diseases.
An emotionally and physically affected person thinks of himself as a burden on his caretakers, his thought process becomes very complex, and he thinks in a way that no one can understand.
This leads him to think himself as an extra duty, extra burden on his family. This feeling takes him to the option of Euthanasia to end his and his caretaker’s suffering.
Sometimes money becomes the reason, people who don’t have an outstanding bank balance and their families are taking care of their medical expenses, feels guilty regarding their condition and the only they see to get rid of this guilt is to end their lives with dignity.
4. Practical Issue
Saying this may make you think of me as a cruel or emotionless person. Still, in this growing world where we’ve less healthcare facilities and more needy patients we can’t think of giving up on a space which is used by a person who has less than 5% chances of living, priority should be a person who has more options of living.
Again it’s a personal choice of the patient but if he is making this decision for himself than we should see a positivity of the decision rather than being just emotional and wait for the miracle to happen.
Cons of Euthanasia
1. There Is Always Hope
According to a study conducted on terminally ill patients, 17% of patients live longer than what their doctor predicted. Euthanasia ultimately terminates this 17% chance of longer life of the patient and who knows there is a chance of a completely healthy lifestyle which we’re not seeing because of the condition of the patient.
Everyone has the right to live, and by choosing this option, they’re eliminating that chance.
2. Lethal Prescription Sometimes Fails
In Oregon, a patient chose death over life and used prescribed lethal medicine to end his life, but he gains wakefulness even after taking prescribed medication. Conditions like this put both patient and doctor in a condition where they can’t think of what to do?
Do they take it as a sign of nature and continue with the treatment? Or should they again attempt this process and wait for the result? Isn’t it more harmful to a patient who is already suffering from a dangerous disease, and now he is exposed to lethal prescription also?
The answer is we can never go against nature even if we’ve developed the best methods; there will always a chance of living.
3. Eliminates the Chances of Better Lifestyle
What is the purpose of advance medical sciences? What is the purpose of advance technologies? The answer is: to improve the quality of life, to improve the standard of living. If every patient is going to end their lives, then how can a doctor be able to make improvements?
A study conducted on patients who wanted to end their lives with dignity, resulted as most of the patients who chose Euthanasia were bedridden, or they couldn’t move. Due to their limited movement, they gave up on life.
What’s the point of highly educated doctors, advanced technologies when the only message going out is of suicide? Healthcare system is a ray of hope in the life of suffering patients; Euthanasia is the exact opposite of this concept.
Conclusion
Everyone’s suffering is different. We can’t make a verdict in favour of the above, and the decision could only be made on the patient’s mental, and physical condition, doctor’s advice, and family’s condition and most notably on the will of a patient.
Why Does Hedonism Not Help Students?
