Euthanasia: should it be legalized?
The legalization of euthanasia is a topic that has been discussed and continues to be discussed in many countries and states in America. A lot of group of people take part in the said debate, and this includes, but is not limited to, politicians, physicians, and scholars involved in ethics and laws pertaining to health. While some argue that euthanasia is unethical, as it involves killing, others maintain that it is the patient, or the family of the patient’s right to choose death, especially when the suffering is unbearable. Amidst all the arguments and debates ongoing, euthanasia should be legalized because dying, just like choosing to live and how to live, is a decision that the person or patient concerned alone should make for him/herself.
As people continue to discuss euthanasia, the term has taken on an emotional meaning, largely due to the fact that it pertains to death or dying. The word, however, came from two Greek words, “eu” which translates to “good,” and “thanatos” which means “death” (Boudreau & Somerville 2014). Although it has taken on different terms, such as physician assisted suicide, the term simply refers to the act of ending a patient’s life through a drug in order to end his/her suffering. It is this term which plays a crucial role in proving why it should be legalized. A person with a terminal illness, meaning the patient has no hope of getting better and that death would be the ultimate result in a short period of time, should not be allowed to suffer longer. The same also goes for a patient who is in a coma and that there is no chance of waking up, or that if the person wakes up, s/he would not be able to function normally. No one else would be able to understand the kind of pain that a patient is going through except him/her, and to let it go on is a suffering that only s/he would bear. There is also the family, who, deaspite not feeling the pain, would also suffer in seeing their loved one in pain for a prolonged period of time. In instances such as these, physicians, politicians, scholars, and lawmakers would not understand nor share the pain the patient and the family is going through, which makes involving them in the discussion irrelevant. In fact, there should be no more discussion about it anymore as it is only the patient and his/her family who go through such situation. In the same manner, the terms “voluntary euthanasia,” which is administering lethal injection with consent (Boudreau & Somerville 2014), “self-administered euthanasia,” or administering the medicine that would cause the patient’s own death, don’t matter anymore.
This is true and has been proven by the case of Brittany Maynard, a 29-year old woman who was diagnosed with brain cancer. According to her self-written article posted in CNN on 2014, nine days after her diagnoses came out, she went through “partial craniotomy and a partial resection of her temporal lobe,” all efforts to prevent the growth of her tumor. However, despite these operations, the doctors informed her that the tumor was not gone, but has instead grown stronger. The doctors proposed a full brain radiation, which would have her hair and scalp all burned and singed. Even when she choses not to go through the procedure and await her time, she would still suffer from so many changes such as personality change, and verbal, cognitive, and motor loss (Murphy 2014). Knowing that whatever medical care she goes through, her life will eventually end, she chose to go through the process of “dying with dignity,” wherein she would be given a drug that she could inject when she could no longer bear the pain, or when she feels that the time is right. Since it is not legal in California, she and her husband had to move to Oregon, and go through all the process of getting settled. Despite being in pain, she had to find new physicians, get a new driver’s license, voter registration, establish residency, and many others. These processes alone took a lot of her time when she could have just been resting, but it is something that she has to accept as not all states have legalized euthanasia. However, she wrote that she was at peace with the knowledge that she has the option to go on with her death or not after she received the prescription for the drug, and that it gave her a sense of control. In the end, Brittany died the way she imagined herself would, with her husband, family, and best friend, in her upstairs bedroom. Brittany’s story proves to be strong argument that death should be a person’s choice alone, if the person can make such decision, and no one else’s as long as it meets the necessary requirements, which are the person has no hope of getting better.
It is undeniable that euthanasia remains a contentious topic, despite the fact that several states in America have already legalized it. However, based on a utilitarain argument, which gives the patient autonomy about how s/he should die and when, euthanasia, both self-induced and physician-assisted as long as consent is given by the family, should be legalized. It is true that life is precious and that all means possible should be taken to presere it, but if the situation and medical condition guarantees that there is no hope for the patient to get better, there is no reason to let the patient suffer further and hold on to life longer when the end is already clear. Like the argument from a religious perspective, administering euthanasia is about relieving a person from suffering, an act of compassion and mercy that the society also advocates (Ebrahimi 2012). This compassion and mercy can also be extended to the family members who are being subjected to the same pain and suffering that the patient is going through as they see their loved one in pain. There is also the financial burden, which may not be as relevant as the emotional suffering, but is an issue that the family has to face as well.
Euthanasia is death, or to be more precise, a “good death” as the term originally implies. It is about giving someone a dignified death instead of letting one live the remaining days of her/his life in pain. Just like birth, dying is also a reality and an essential part of life, thereby making it an important consideration. While living longer is desirable, getting sick is unexpected and unwanted, but nonetheless a reality that one has to face. When faced in a situation where death is the natural consequence of an illness, and excrutiating pain accompanies it, a patient or the family should be given the right to choose death with dignity instead of letting the patient suffer unnecessarily. As such, euthanasia should be made legal.
References
Bourdeau, J.D. (2011). Physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia: Can you even imagine
teaching medical students how to end their patients’ lives?. The Permanente Journal, 15 (4). Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3267569/
Bourdeau, J.D. & somerville, M.A. (2014). Euthanasia and assisted suicide: a physician’s and
ethicist’s perspectives. dovepress, 2014 (4). Retrieved from https://www.dovepress.com/euthanasia-and-assisted-suicide-a-physicianrsquos-and-ethicistrsquos-p-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-MB
Ebrahimi, N. (2012). The ethics of euthanasia. Australian Medical Student Journal, 3 (1).
Retrieved from http://www.amsj.org/archives/2066
Maynard, B. (2014). My right ro death with dignity at 29. CNN.com. Retrieved from
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/07/opinion/maynard-assisted-suicide-cancer-dignity/
