Do we have the right to live life in our own terms? Ofcourse, we do! Now that isn’t an issue of dispute. Fundamental rights bestowed upon us entitle us to choose every step we tread…so does that include our choice to die? Euthanasia…should it be legalized? Many countries are in favor of mercy killing…so should India join the foray? Controversies seldom confuse me. Most of the problems are either black or white to me…but this one is mournfully grey.
Imagine this….every time as my ventilators make me breathe, excruciating pain torments every inch of my body. Innumerable tubes cram every orifice in my body. I am incompetent to perform even my basic chores. I have always lived a liberated dignified life and here I am living just for the sake of it. Should I let my inability hurt my dignity just when I am at the threshold of the finish line? Moreover it’s my body, my soul and my choice. Doesn’t it sound pretty logical?
Many argue that euthanasia amounts to suicide. Suicide is a spontaneous, puerile decision to end life as an attempt to escape from an ostensibly crucial issue. While the decision to pull the chord isn’t a hasty one…infact it’s a noble deed to liberate the vehement soul and let it rest in peace. Now is this ethical? Who are we to play God? But then who are we to counter God’s will by mechanically extending couple of tormenting hours in life? Another major impediment is the Hippocratic Oath…One of the clause goes like this…’To please no one will I prescribe a deadly drug nor give advice which may cause his death.’ But then the same oath subsumes another vow ‘to keep the good of the patient as the highest priority’. Euthanasia is in the interest of the patient hence is moral.
Having said that, the optimistic (unrealistic) me refuses to believe that my loved one can actually die. What if there is a miracle? What if my beloved wakes up as if nothing happened? What if ‘The Lord of Mercy’ decides to bestow few more years? These ‘What if’s are countless. Some things in this universe are celestial and incomprehensible. I do believe in miracles. I have seen them happen.
Let me share an incident…One of my close friend’s father suffered from a rare lung ailment ‘primary pulmonary hypertension’. His condition aggravated rapidly and was put under ventilator and showed almost nil progress for ten days. Doctors had given up. But then to their utter surprise, he started responding excellently and was back on his feet in a month. Some years back, he left for his heavenly abode after almost 3 years of normal life. Those three years did matter a lot for the family. His family got together and made the maximum of those 1095 days. This incident reinforced my faith in miracles. What if the family had decided to put him off the ventilator?
Weighing both the sides, I believe it all depends on personal choice. If the chances of survival are nix and the suffering unendurable, I don’t think euthanasia is a bad choice.
Imagine this….every time as my ventilators make me breathe, excruciating pain torments every inch of my body. Innumerable tubes cram every orifice in my body. I am incompetent to perform even my basic chores. I have always lived a liberated dignified life and here I am living just for the sake of it. Should I let my inability hurt my dignity just when I am at the threshold of the finish line? Moreover it’s my body, my soul and my choice. Doesn’t it sound pretty logical?
Many argue that euthanasia amounts to suicide. Suicide is a spontaneous, puerile decision to end life as an attempt to escape from an ostensibly crucial issue. While the decision to pull the chord isn’t a hasty one…infact it’s a noble deed to liberate the vehement soul and let it rest in peace. Now is this ethical? Who are we to play God? But then who are we to counter God’s will by mechanically extending couple of tormenting hours in life? Another major impediment is the Hippocratic Oath…One of the clause goes like this…’To please no one will I prescribe a deadly drug nor give advice which may cause his death.’ But then the same oath subsumes another vow ‘to keep the good of the patient as the highest priority’. Euthanasia is in the interest of the patient hence is moral.
Having said that, the optimistic (unrealistic) me refuses to believe that my loved one can actually die. What if there is a miracle? What if my beloved wakes up as if nothing happened? What if ‘The Lord of Mercy’ decides to bestow few more years? These ‘What if’s are countless. Some things in this universe are celestial and incomprehensible. I do believe in miracles. I have seen them happen.
Let me share an incident…One of my close friend’s father suffered from a rare lung ailment ‘primary pulmonary hypertension’. His condition aggravated rapidly and was put under ventilator and showed almost nil progress for ten days. Doctors had given up. But then to their utter surprise, he started responding excellently and was back on his feet in a month. Some years back, he left for his heavenly abode after almost 3 years of normal life. Those three years did matter a lot for the family. His family got together and made the maximum of those 1095 days. This incident reinforced my faith in miracles. What if the family had decided to put him off the ventilator?
Weighing both the sides, I believe it all depends on personal choice. If the chances of survival are nix and the suffering unendurable, I don’t think euthanasia is a bad choice.
14 comments:
being a doc gives me a certain edge i feel in this topic. Personally, I am in favor of euthanasia in futile cases. There is just so much suffering in the family as it is - not just the patient. Your case of recovery when all seemed lost is the exception, not the rule, aneesha. And thats our curse. having to watch ppl suffer all our lives. having to watch them beg for a release from the pain knowing fully well we cant.
Is euthanasia really interfering with God's will ? Then, by the same coin, isnt any life saving surgery too the same - an interference ?
maybe im wrong, but its just my opinion....
your concluding remark " If the chances of survival are nix and the suffering unendurable, I don’t think euthanasia is a bad choice." - isnt this in total contradiction to the personal experience you narrated in the previous paragraph ? your frnd's dad survived when the doctors didnt give him the slightest of chance or to put it better "chances of survival are nix".
There are so many conradictory and humanitarian aspects to the whole debate. Personally even i would support Euthanasia but miracles do happen , dont they ?
its really a matter of personal choice, really.
Think, for instance, a man from a really poor family is on articficial respiration and other life supporting systems. The family has spent almost everyhing it had on the man. What should the family do now? The family cannot afford to wait and hope for a miracle. Although difficult, they might agree to euthanasia.
On the contrary, a well-to-do family will choose to wait and hope for a miracle.
So the opinions people may have will depend on a large number of factors.
Personally though, I think euthanasia should be legalized.
Certainly a thought provoking post. Althought it does not add to the debate on whether mercy killing should be made legal or not I wanted to add this: suicide is not always spontaneous, it can be very deliberate and planned too.
@Roshan: Watching people in pain is heart-wrenching. A visit to the govt hospital left me depressed for weeks...
I do agree that the case was an exception but then in those circumstances your heart wants to beleive that your beloved might be the 'one'.
@Arunabh: As I stated, euthanasia is somethning that I neither support nor oppose.Hence had to contradict my own experience!
@Harshad: I completely agree that the choice largely depends on the family's economic status too. But then legalizing euthanasia is a double edged sword..don't u think so?
@Aj: 'Deliberate and planned' suicide baffles me. If he can plan and execute his death with impeccable perfection..why can't he bring his messed up life back to the track?
well...in a society like ours, every other issue is a double-edged sword :)
well aneesha....i guess my opinion here will be very similar to wat u have said in ur post....personal choice....but i also thnk that all that we are talking here holds no ground when u r really in a situation like this....at that time no logic or choice works....its just your beliefs that rule....will it be as easy as talking here to tell a doctor to kill ur friend or any close one and end his suffering?
and as far as legalising it is concerned, i dont thnk u can even thnk abt such an issue from a legal point of view, there are some thnigs which shud be left away from legalities and rules. Please let death be spared from laws and rules, if not life.
first, you're playing with fire here. euthanasia is a sensitive issue in public perspective and something i would NOT blog abt! second... i agree with arunabh... you are seriously contradicting yourself in the last two paras. although... the incident you mentioned successfully reaffirmed my faith in miracles--- had lost all belief after losing my grandpa :((
other than these few contentious issues... the whole post made for a gripping read. would agree that euthanasia is a matter of personal choice :)
@Deepak: Death is beyond human intellect.Human emotions largely influence our decisions than anything else!I do agree it's difficult to weigh certain issues with legal balances..!
@Yashika: The contradictions were deliberate...Just to emphasize that though I believe in miracles..sometimes we need to review the practicalities too!wtsay??!!
try this arguement out.... killing is always wrong as by cutting out a complex being from the universe one is always impeding the evolution process(rather the process which makes universe more and more complex ... remember we started from a big bang and are becoming more complex day by day... though its still a theory, even then) ... euthanasia can be seen as doing a wrong thing for good reasons...
Well i was trying to give an arguement based on logic... one of the types which can be ended with a "hence proved" tag :P...
well i still didnt clear the fact whether i support it or not .... its equally hazy but may be it is banned because it can be grossly misused..
@Sai: Interesting Theory!! Completely different angle to this issue...I agree legalizing is highly risky!
I think it very much depends on the family of the diseased. If the costs of medication are too high and will leave the family finances in disarray, mercy-killing is perhaps desirable. There is no point of depriving the children of education because of the excessive cost of treatment of one of the parents.
Miracles do happen but one needs to calculate the cost of the miracle -- the cost both in terms of money as well as suffering. 10 days is rather a short time (in case of your friend's dad) but if the same stretched over a month or two months, the case of euthanasia is so much more stronger.
It is not a personal choice. It has to be the collective choice of the family.
I agree with you. In clinical practice not everything turns out be expected. But physicians and patient and significant others hope for the best. But when you are going no where, you ought to think of other alternatives.
Health care faculty completely offers the whole decision of "mercy killing" to patient and relatives. In practice
euthanasia is not as unmerciful as "killing" the patient by some violent means. It's just stopping all the life support systems that the patient gets. This is all "euthanasia" includes. Euthanasia should be practiced with all caution, to respect the rights of the patients'. It is resort that is sought out when all the medical aids have failed and patient is without significant progress from diseases such as end stage multiple metastatic cancer, patients with over 95% burns, to name the few.In India even though euthanasia is not legalized, it is practiced undocumented. If you don't believe this, if you have friends in health care team (physicians, Nurses) just ask them about cases where mercy killing was practiced.
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