Euthanasia

The term ‘Euthanasia’ comes from the Greek word for ‘easy death’. It is the one of the most public policy issues being debated about today. Formally called ‘mercykilling’, euthanasia is the act of purposely making or helping someone die, instead of allowing nature to take its course. Basically euthanasia means killing in the name of compassion. Euthanasia, can be ‘voluntary’, ‘passive’, ‘active’, or ‘positive’,

Voluntary involves a request by the dying patient or their legal representative. Passive involves, doing nothing to prevent death - allowing someone to die.

Positive involves taking deliberate action to cause a death.

Active involves giving a lethal dose of toxicant to cause death.

Euthanasia, at the moment is illegal throughout the world apart from in the State of Oregon in USA, where there is a law specifically allowing doctors to prescribe lethal drugs for the purpose of euthanasia. In the Netherlands it is practised widely, although, in fact, it remains illegal.

Opposition:

Majority of religions disapprove Euthanasia, Christianity disapproves it according to the belief human being have a special place in God’s heart, eyes and in his creation:

“For you created my inmost being; you (God) knit me together in my mother’s womb”(psalm 139)

So the alternative to euthanasia in Christianity is ‘Hospice movement’. The kind of care hospice give to the patients is very distinctive for they offer tender loving care. The three aims of hospices are:

 ·        To relieve pain.

·        To enable patients and families to face up to death.

·        To care for emotional needs of the relatives.

 A hospice offers care to the patients and their families at the most difficult stages in their lives.

Opinion:

I believe that everyone has the right to choose how he or she live and die. Not everybody will have an easy death. Some terminal pain cannot be controlled, even with the best of care and the strongest of drugs. Other distressing symptoms, which come with diseases, such as sickness, no mobility, incontinence, breathlessness and fever cannot always be relieved. Pain is not always the issue - quality of life is too.

People should not be left lingering in pain. They should not have to suffer when death is inevitable. People do have the right to commit suicide, although it is a tragic and individual act. However euthanasia is not suicide. It is not a private act, you have the support of family and friends. Euthanasia is about letting a person assist another death to save them from long painful deaths.

Many people argue, however, that a person who is terminally ill may make a miraculous recovery - it has happened in the past. Most terminally ill people…