Life is short, life is beautiful
There have been debates across the globe when the question of legalising euthanasia came into being. Today just ten countries in the world recognise it as a law, first being, Netherlands, legalising it in the year 2001.
LIFE IS short, life is beautiful. Live every minute to the fullest, love truly, kiss slowly, laugh uncontrollably and live to spread happiness and joy. At some point of time, somewhere someone must have told this to you, desperately trying to making you believe how beautiful the gift of life is. The opening line of this article will for sure give you an impression that the rest of it would deal with immense amount of optimism, an attempt to preach how ideally one should lead life with dignity, how one can improve the basic essence and quality of life. On the contrary, the subject that article would further deal with intends to direct your attention towards a very debatable, highly discussed and very controversial subject, euthanasia, to put it in simple terms, the choice to end life when suffering becomes unbearable.
Euthanasia is also defined as the act of killing a person to rid him from excruciating pain and unbearable suffering when his/her life holds no more value. It is also termed as ‘mercy killing’, ‘painless death’, and ‘assisted suicide’. Euthanasia is not a choice that every person can consider, it holds validity only in the context of terminally ill patients where the plausible scope for recovery is minimal or for that matter of fact nil. It is connoted as ‘mercy killing’ or ‘painless death’ because it bestows the choice of not being a part of such suffering on a person. Many people also choose to term as ‘death with dignity’ and some have called it as a person’s individual ‘right to die’ when living becomes impossible. The entire concept is known for its ambiguity.
A lot of people opine that euthanasia should be legalised in our country taking into consideration the physical and psychological state of a terminally ill patient. This argument seems justified because no one would understand what that person must be going through every passing day of his, how difficult it must be for him to deal with his state of helplessness which makes him an object of sympathy. Most of the terminally ill patients are depressed and often suicidal thoughts mushroom in their mind because they consider themselves worthless and burdensome.
Psychologists are also of the opinion that not all people who demand to be euthanised want to be euthanised. They are depressed because of a sense of being unable to do anything normally takes over them. Only care, love, affection and immense amount of support would help them out of believing so.
Euthanasia comes in different forms – voluntary, involuntary and physician assisted. Voluntary eutahanasia is when a patient demands to be euthanised, involuntary is when a patient is not competent enough to make the choice and physician assisted is when a doctor suggests euthanasia when he notices no scope for improvement. Involuntary euthanasia would naturally leave the choice of allowing it on the family members, this again could cause immense amount of psychological turmoil to the people involved in doing so. The act of killing is considered the most heinous crime in any land by terming it merciful you just modify its meaning but not its nature. Now, legalising it in a country like ours would only lead to criminalise it where corruption and greed are the fuel of our economy. There could be chances of deliberate involuntary euthanasia where a lot of money and property is involved. Abusing the legality seems very possible in our country.
The medical profession condemns euthanasia because it forms its base in saving lives. Religion is against the very idea because life is a gift from God Almighty and he never allows you more suffering than you can bear also it is cycle which finds its end at some point of time. The entire idea of legalising it on the basis of human grounds seems devoid of reasonable argument as hope of betterment in any case always holds a chance. And when there is hope there is always a way. There are alternative choices as well, with the advent of palliative care centres and hospices, dying rather living the last few moments with dignity, care, support becomes possible.
As an individual I completely sympathise with people who are terminally ill and am sensitive towards their suffering but the concept of ‘mercy killing’ just doesn’t appeal to me. This doesn’t in any way mean that I would like to watch a person suffer when there is no way out but giving up doesn’t seem justifiable as well. Hope, love and affection are most of the times considered as pain relievers. They can’t help cure a person’s physical condition but for sure do help banishing the idea of not wanting to live.
All in all- ‘No life that breathes with human breath longs for death’.
Firstly, the term ‘mercy killing’ in itself is ironical in nature. How can killing someone be merciful in nature? The word ‘killing’ immediately brings its synonym ‘murder’ to our minds. How can you demand for a right to die when you elude yourself from accessing any other basic right by doing so? And also death is as natural as life in itself is, accepting it when it comes would only entitle a person to its dignity.
There have been debates across the globe when the question of legalising it came into being. Today just ten countries in the world recognise it as a law, first being, Netherlands, legalising it in the year 2001.
There have been debates across the globe when the question of legalising it came into being. Today just ten countries in the world recognise it as a law, first being, Netherlands, legalising it in the year 2001.
A lot of people opine that euthanasia should be legalised in our country taking into consideration the physical and psychological state of a terminally ill patient. This argument seems justified because no one would understand what that person must be going through every passing day of his, how difficult it must be for him to deal with his state of helplessness which makes him an object of sympathy. Most of the terminally ill patients are depressed and often suicidal thoughts mushroom in their mind because they consider themselves worthless and burdensome.
Psychologists are also of the opinion that not all people who demand to be euthanised want to be euthanised. They are depressed because of a sense of being unable to do anything normally takes over them. Only care, love, affection and immense amount of support would help them out of believing so.
Euthanasia comes in different forms – voluntary, involuntary and physician assisted. Voluntary eutahanasia is when a patient demands to be euthanised, involuntary is when a patient is not competent enough to make the choice and physician assisted is when a doctor suggests euthanasia when he notices no scope for improvement. Involuntary euthanasia would naturally leave the choice of allowing it on the family members, this again could cause immense amount of psychological turmoil to the people involved in doing so. The act of killing is considered the most heinous crime in any land by terming it merciful you just modify its meaning but not its nature. Now, legalising it in a country like ours would only lead to criminalise it where corruption and greed are the fuel of our economy. There could be chances of deliberate involuntary euthanasia where a lot of money and property is involved. Abusing the legality seems very possible in our country.
The medical profession condemns euthanasia because it forms its base in saving lives. Religion is against the very idea because life is a gift from God Almighty and he never allows you more suffering than you can bear also it is cycle which finds its end at some point of time. The entire idea of legalising it on the basis of human grounds seems devoid of reasonable argument as hope of betterment in any case always holds a chance. And when there is hope there is always a way. There are alternative choices as well, with the advent of palliative care centres and hospices, dying rather living the last few moments with dignity, care, support becomes possible.
As an individual I completely sympathise with people who are terminally ill and am sensitive towards their suffering but the concept of ‘mercy killing’ just doesn’t appeal to me. This doesn’t in any way mean that I would like to watch a person suffer when there is no way out but giving up doesn’t seem justifiable as well. Hope, love and affection are most of the times considered as pain relievers. They can’t help cure a person’s physical condition but for sure do help banishing the idea of not wanting to live.
All in all- ‘No life that breathes with human breath longs for death’.
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