Should Euthanasia Be Legalized: Delving Deep Into the Debate

Introduction

Is life worth fighting for? For some patients who are terminally ill, life could be something that’s killing them the most other than their illness. Fighting for their lives whilst depending on their fate with the help of medical appliances. Imagine holding the hands of your loved ones, seeing the pain etched on their faces while groaning in agony. Witnessing the people whom we cared the most fading away into the clutches of death, that’s the worst nightmare that anyone could experience throughout their life. To those patients, it is a brutal misery to fight for their life trying to survive while upholding all the torments. In the end, they may consider ending their life by Euthanasia. 'The term euthanasia, originally meant only 'good death,' but in modern society it has come to mean a death free of any anxiety and pain, often brought about through the use of medication. Most recently, it has come to mean 'mercy killing' - deliberately putting an end to someone's life in order to spare the individual's suffering' (Manning, 1998). Some may think it could do more harm than good to us but some may think it is the best solution for the people who are suffering. So, should euthanasia be legalized? This is the question of my essay. There are various reasons to support both agreement and disagreement of legalizing euthanasia. Some think that euthanasia should be legalized since it relieves patients from suffering, reduces the family’s financial burden, and encourages organ transplant. However, others think that psychological effects on society, preciousness of a human’s life, and giving birth of immoral authorities make euthanasia should not be legalized.

Legalizing Euthanasia: Pros

First of all, it is often said that a life of an individual is precious and should be appreciated despite how bad the circumstances. However, when we or our loved ones have an incurable disease that can only live with the assist of machinery and medicines, euthanasia is the best option for that person. “One of medicine's most important purposes is to allow hopelessly ill persons to die with as much comfort, control, and dignity as possible.” (Cassel, Meier, & Quill, 1992). People that are living with a terminal illness, such as cancer or that are in an irreversible coma, is a suffering to that person. For instance, a patient with a critical state has to remain in their bedfast or in the mercy of nurses, medical assistants, and family for many daily activities such as changing clothes, eating, showering and using the restroom. Many patients refuse to be a burden to their family and to be remembered by their family in such a shameful form. According to Emanuel (1999), “Euthanasia represents the patient’s realization of the end of a good death or, more accurately, a quality dying experience” (p.629). Therefore, euthanasia is a good alternative for the patient to decide whether to face their death as they have control of their own life. The patients whom decided to undergo euthanasia are able to face death with dignity. Furthermore, the patient has the ability to accomplish what they want to do for their family and are well prepared to face their own death.

One of the other reasons to why it should be legalized is mainly because of the financial problems faced by the patients’ loved ones if ones needs to be hospitalized to prolong their life despite not being able to recover. Due to the high treatment cost, this may cause their loved ones to bear with the financial burdens. For instance, “The costs of keeping each PVS patient alive is around £90 000 a year”, (“Intolerable delays attend,” 2016). Most of the patients who request for euthanasia are either they cannot manage on their own or the old, senile people. This is because most of them need high-quality nursing care and life-sustaining treatment to prolong their life. However, due to inadequate funding for palliative care, they tend to consider themselves a burden to their families or relatives. Some of the elderly might feel despair because of the afflicted with debilitating conditions. They fear of being an encumbrance towards their families to make ends meet in order to pay their bills. Besides the pain and suffering, this is the reason why they request for euthanasia. Once euthanasia be legalized, it will be a way of reduce the cost for their families in their daily life.

Apart from that, euthanasia plays a vital role in escalating the frequency of organ transplants. In fact, there are more than 20 thousand names placed on the national transplant waiting list. The number is expected to be increased drastically in the future of time as the national health level is decreasing day by day, and subsequently, the demand for organ transplants will be increased. Due to many of them have a limited time range to wait for their organs to be transplanted, the waiting time can be cut down by adding the euthanizer’s name onto the donor list. “Organ donation after euthanasia enables those who do not wish to remain alive to prolong the lives of those who do, and also—compared with ‘classical’ donation after circulatory death—allows many more people to fulfil their wish to donate organs after death” (Bollen, Hoopen, Ysebaert, Mook, & Huern, 2016, pp. 486-489). To encourage this multiple-lives saving action, the governments introduced some policies regarding approaches to award the family members of the donors, so that the decedents feel honored even though their body parts are not complete after they went. In short, encouraging organ transplants can be also a benefit of euthanasia.

Legalizing Euthanasia: Cons

On the contrary, everything has its ups and downs. “Euthanasia, like suicide has a psychological effect on people and society” (“6 Advantages and,” n.d.). It can urge other peoples to do the same. According to experts, people with family members who have committed suicide are prone to doing the same. This psychological effect also goes with the act of euthanasia. People get to know about Euthanasia will increase as time goes on. When Euthanasia becomes normalized, society will accept it as a common practice. Therefore, it will influence more people to consider Euthanasia instead of seeking for medical treatment. Patients that are suffering from disease might feel depressed and think negatively. If Euthanasia is legalized, this will lead them to a result of deciding to end their life by Euthanasia to get rid of the torment and suffering. Not only this, this can be worse if the sickness was wrongly diagnosed but the patient was already euthanized. “Some studies have shown a higher prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression among family members or friends witnessing medical assistance in dying” (Wagner, Muller, & Maercker, 2012, pp. 542-546). PTSD even will affect the lifetime of a person with their family members or friends who had euthanized. Consequently, Euthanasia should not be legalized to prevent normal practice of Euthanasia.

Everyone deserves to live since it is their right from birth. Life is precious because it is so fragile that it can be easily taken away. Life leads to friendship, love, and even more. We are able to accomplish great achievements in knowledge and improving in our abilities and skills. Achieving what we desire, even though some of us have physical defect since they were born, we are still able to do what we want as long as we have strong will and adhere to do what we always wanted to do. Why would people still choosing euthanasia when they are able to do something meaningful for social and life? Did they ever think of their families and friends, think of everyone who loves them? What is the frame of mind of their families and friends? Life is precious not only for ourselves, it is also for us to contribute what we can do for the society and our families. Euthanasia is a selfish behavior because they never think of the feelings of the people around them. We should cherish every precious moment even though we are living under pressure and stress. Life is given once, there are no more second chances

“Legalizing euthanasia would have a wide range of profoundly detrimental effects. It would allow the killing of people who do not genuinely volunteer to be killed.” (Kavanagh, 2010). If euthanasia is legalized then it can give birth to immoral authorities like corrupted doctors, nurses and caregivers in the hospitals, nursing and retirement homes. This is due to doctors have the greatest supremacy to make the decisions whether or not to end a patient’s life and this unethical practice will put thousands in the pockets of dishonest and greedy people. The only difference between an act of killing a patient and an act of murder is whether or not the patient consented or legalized. Euthanasia practice will then lead to cover for a serial killer like doctors who take the law in their own hands go from unethical to respectable. There are some countries like Belgium, Switzerland and Netherlands which legalized the practice of euthanasia, there are actual cases a few doctors who are masking their euthanasia practice under the guise of compassion but in reality, it is a cover up of their enjoyment of power that euthanasia gives them over life. According to Schadenberg (2013), Dr. Virginia Soares de Souza, a Brazilian doctor who has been charged with killing seven patients to free up beds at a hospital intensive care unit and at the same time may have been responsible for as 300 deaths due to abuse of euthanasia in 2013.

Conclusion

To sum it all up, relieving patients from suffering, reducing the family’s financial burden, and encouraging organ transplant make euthanasia should be legalized, while psychological effects on society, preciousness of a human’s life, and giving birth immoral authorities disallow euthanasia to be legalized. As you can see, we all have a different point of view in deciding either legalized or illegalized Euthanasia. After so many years, this topic still remains as an unsolved case whether to legalized or illegalize Euthanasia as everyone has a different opinion regarding life, religions and humanity about this issue. Ending a person’s life or deciding whether to live is not in our control as to who gave us life? Is it you? Is it me? We all have the opportunity to live in this world. Perhaps ending a patient’s life who has an incurable disease like cancer is something to help get rid of their pain but maybe a miracle could happen. Life is a journey filled with mysterious adventures as we cannot predict what will happen. In the near future, perhaps there will be a cure for diseases to be discovered to help these people to survive and have a second chance in living. Suffering may be a terrible thing, but in life, nothing ever comes easy. It’s how one interprets it and grow through it to become stronger and overcome it. Open your eyes and learn to appreciate the beauty of everything. Storms never last long, there will always be a rainbow behind gloomy days.

References

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6. Intolerable delays attend withdrawal of life support for patients in permanent vegetative state. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.bmj.com/company/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/delay-life-support.pdf
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8. Manning, M. (1998). Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide: Killing or Caring? (p.1). New York, U.S.: Paulist Press.
9. Scadenberg, A. (2013). Doctor Killed 300 Patients in Euthanasia to “Free Up” Hospital Beds. Life News. Retrieved from https://www.lifenews.com/2013/04/02/doctor-killed-300-patients-in-euthanasia-to-free-up-hospital-beds/
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