Authored By Ankita Sharma:
Let’s do a small exercise- take out a minute and imagine that you are suffering from a fatal disease with no chance of survival, you are confined on a bed in some hospital room, your relatives pity you and your family drains itself of money only to keep you alive, doctors treat you more as a research subject or a vegetable or a poor hapless thing. You cannot eat and drink stuff u like; you cannot enjoy the rain and nature and so on. You are living a life that is no less than a curse. I bet many of us cannot imagine it more than a few seconds. Yes, this is the real life of patients who ask for euthanasia or mercy killing. Although it’s considered unethical and immoral but when perceived from the point of view of the patient, it seems like a blessing. There are people out there fighting the battle of life and there are always problems worse than our petty everyday pains.
When death snatches from us our loved one, its still bearable tagging it as a cruel act of fate but what if you have to run from pillar to post to request death for your beloved? Such is the truth in case of patients who request for euthanasia.
The dictionary defines euthanasia as ‘the act of putting to death painlessly or allowing to die, as by withholding extreme medical measures, a person or animal suffering from an incurable, esp. a painful, disease or condition’. Also ‘the act or practice of ending the life of an individual suffering from a terminal illness or an incurable condition, as by lethal injection or the suspension of extraordinary medical treatment’. The ongoing heated debate has made this otherwise a much medical term quite famous. There are debates going on at international level about it. Basically euthanasia is of two types, active and passive. In the active one, a lethal drug or other method is used to grant death while in the latter case the treatment is withheld so the patient dies due to lack of necessary medications. Euthanasia is legal only in ten countries, viz., Netherlands, Belgium, Oregon (U.S.A.), Norway, Sweden, Finland, Luxembourg, Albania, Holland, Switzerland and Thailand. The religious authorities world over are strongly against it. A statement by Pope John Paul II in 2004 sheds more light on this matter- "A man, even if seriously sick or prevented in the exercise of its higher functions, is and will be always a man ... [he] will never become a 'vegetable' or an 'animal,'" the Pope said. "The intrinsic value and personal dignity of every human being does not change depending on their circumstances.” Talking of our country, mercy killing is illegal India. And government has its own reasons to back its decision.
While some perceive euthanasia as a crime, others consider it an act of mercy on the hapless patient. But even if it is made legal, there is wide scope for its abuse, especially by the winnable heirs. Moreover the abuse can be of more than one kind, often emotionally taxing on the already suffering patient. What if the doctors start behaving in an inhuman way so as the patient him-self gives up the wish of continuing for life? What if doctors are bribed by the impatient relatives or if the patient himself bribes the doctor for a lethal injection? Although mercy killing with the consent of the patient does not violate the freedom of choice, it does put doctors in a soup. There are certain cases where the patient goes into a vegetative state and all the attempts to revive him/her are futile like the famous case of Aruna Shanbaugh who is in such a state for more than 25 years. Here the patient cannot exert her choice and thus the final decision falls upon the immediate friends and relatives who can very well give a nod to euthanasia so as to secure their own future or save themselves of the tensions and efforts attached with the case. But if the patient is wide awake and in his complete senses, should he be given a choice to decide his fate? Since this is a crucial decision, what if the patient is a minor i.e. under the age of 18 years then who shall decide what should be done. Each case is unique and no single law can be made to govern all cases in same way. In some cases there may be minor patients who are sane while some other case may involve a major who is in a vegetative state. Moreover, giving someone a lethal injection just to save a hospital bed and some medications is not perceived correct by some.
The hard fact here remains that even though it appears quite true to hear that life is much more precious than money but arranging money life long for a terminal patient at the cost of everyone and everything in a family is simply not possible. Since mercy killing is a very serious matter and differs from case to case so a special euthanasia committee must be set up for each individual case, that takes into account all the factors like the condition of the patient, his age, his heirs and all those people who can benefit from his death. The panel must include a sociologist, a psychiatrist and magisterial/ police officers. This committee should visit the patient separately and decide if he should be granted mercy killing or not. Thus, rather than leaving the fate of a hapless patient on fate or the free will of his family and relatives, it’s rather sensible to ask the patient first and map his will if possible. The act of terminating has to be decided and carried out after ascertaining that it is only for the benefit of the sufferer with zero chance of malicious intention of any kind. No religion ever preaches killing in any form. But if everyday a patient is going through a living hell, when everyday is a painful and lonely struggle, euthanasia or mercy killing is perceived as a blessing and not as an ethically wrong thing.
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Koo
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... Very good article....Feels nice to spot such useful / interesting articles on this budding site. Euthanasia is certainly a sensitive topic. Needs more discussion and public opinion to arrive at a consensus. Something like a committee is definately one option, but then...how many such patients can the committee visit...? and creating more commitees will make it complex for implementing. After all, in India there are numerous instances of committees being bought over and witnesses changing statements. Nevertheless, this option can definately be tried. In case of birds & animals....I am fully in support of Euthanasia in the parks / zoo / sanctuary "only" when it is a case of dangerous disease that can wipe out many of the fellow birds / animals. |
adisha
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... Dealing with a topic like Ethuansia is delicacy is truly commendable. It's really a question of what feels wrong vs. what feels right, isn't it?? If there is even a percentage of hope, one would surely hold onto to it.With th costs of medical care going sky high, for such a decision family members would have to be truly practical which is usually not possible unless they have alterior motives. Unless they are specifically asked by the patient themselves. Having a commitee makes sense but only when it's an investigative commitee but then again as Koo says, how many would make up such a team. That would require a lot of resources which would probably be as much as keeping the patient alive. I guess best solution would be to have maitain a living will and keep it updated regulary in case of disasters so that people are aware of what one desires to be done in such cases... |
Restless
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... A Masterpiece on this site,i must say.. Euthanasia is such an issue which needs a lot of attention and awareness.Aruna Shanbaugh case stands as a big question mark on humanity. For those of you who don't know much abt her lemme tell u that she was a nurse in mumbai and was sodmized by a mosnter as she was going through her menstrual cycle and then strangled by a dog-chain which left her to a state of coma till date in Mumbai Municipal corporation run hospital-the same hospital where she used to work as nurse and nourished ambitions of going abroad for her studies. Irony is this that the culprit got a mere 7-year imprisonment on the allegation that he had starngled a lady to steal her jewellery and watch. Judiciary in India has a lot of latitude.Victim couldn't be punished even for rape because proofs said that her hymen was intact while the crime was much much more heinous.....today she dies 100 hundred deaths in a day. The evil persists in several other forms in our society which do not come to records and hence to public but then people do suffer from it. Each one in the society who come across any such case should raise a strong voice against it. @Koo:More than committees, it needs public attention, strong voice and a judiciary which is based on Natural Justice. Natural justice is something which comes into action when all evidences fail to prove the culprit and the crime and at the same time the Jury is convinced that laws don't support the cause of the victim and he needs to exercise some inherent power that Constitution grants him under extra-ordinary conditions....we need to make the base of our society stronger and judiciary foolproof. @Adisha: yup investigative committees will do but then if and only if the ones heading these committees are ethical and at the same time not influenced. I wonder if we ever witness any such committee ....!! |
Koo
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... @ Restless: In India, only 6% of the cases that reach the court end up with justice / conviction. |
Ashutosh Ratnam
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... That there is an inherent refusal to end obvious, irreversible suffering in the Hippocratic Oath is pretty much indicative of the sort of problem that plagues medicine as a whole. There’s something about the profession that manages to let you get away with being way too righteous, and way holier-than-thou even though in the larger scheme of things you may just end up being a total callous bastard. I’m all for euthanasia, I haven’t done anything of the sort, but you can’t help but see the cold clear LOGIC behind the idea. Maybe it has something to do with certain problems I have with the entire concept of God as a whole, and his role in the scheme of things, but if you look at the way some of them have to drag through it, can you really believe in the sacredness of human life. A child can choke himself over the placenta that kept him alive – it’s way easier to die, and way smaller an event that we’re all willing to believe. Highbrow denial can delude you into feeling very good. You’ve pretty much set a whole can of gunpowder open. |
Ankita
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... hii Ashutosh thanks for such a thoughtful comment. yes I know there always a high tension and dilemma involved in such cases. |
Neeraj
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... Great article. India needs to wake up to reality. Even suicide is "illegal". So if someone's suicide attempt fails, they are put in jail instead of helping them. |
Ankita
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... hii Neeraj ya, u have hit the nail..laws need a revamp. thanks for liking the post  keep coming! |
Peeyush
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... A very well written article !!! But when you say that a person on death bed be granted the wish whether to live or not, I would say that people who are handicapped (may be mentally or physically) are also 'going through living hell' but we never ever say that they should be given a choice, its always that 'we have to fight through' no matter what. I believe that there are very rare cases where we can actually decide whether the person will survive the illness or not. Miracles Do Happen !!! |
Jonna Krahenbuhl
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... I do not post very many comments because I do not type well but this was very useful thank you! |
Arvind Singh
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... Very Nice article, But not agree that mercy killing is good.Any person, If we don't have right to choose anyone’s birth..then how can he have the right, to choose anyone’s death? May he be the victim’s family member, or the victim, himself. Till now, we have heard a lot of suicides. Isn’t Mercy Killing(if taken consent from the person himself) also a suicide?? And if suicide is said to be wrong, then why don’t mercy killing too? I read some on http://www.lawisgreek.com/germ...uthanasia/ |
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