Why Should Euthanasia Be Legal

Do you think ill people with a disease should have the opportunity to die, in peace and without pain? Or laws regulating it, would be abused, making that people died, without wanting it to? Is it better to have a higher percentage of assisted suicide or in normal deaths?

Euthanasia is legal in the Netherlands, Belgium, Colombia, Luxembourg and Canada. Should we follow their path? Why should euthanasia be legal?

According to the Netherlands, that made euthanasia legal in 2002, they say that patients can receive the treatment with “unbearable suffering with no prospect of improvement”. They said, the patient must take the decision voluntary and have a sustained wish to die, and at least two doctors must approve the request. This argument was imposed in the rest of the countries, that made euthanasia legal.

On one hand, according to a document called ‘’care’’, the arguments given for the legalization of euthanasia are:

• We need it. Supporters in favour euthanasia believe that allowing ill people to ‘die with dignity’ is kinder, than forcing them to continue their lives with daily suffering.
• We want it. This argument says that ever patient, has a right to choose when to die.
• We can control it. They argue that Euthanasia can be safely regulated by government legislation.

Imagine that your wife has ‘’multiple sclerosis’’, she can’t move, eat and talk with difficulties. She has been requesting a voluntary death, but in the country she lives isn’t possible, so she ask his husband to help her. If you were the husband, what would you do? Obey the laws or do what your wife is desiring?

Well, this is real story, of a man called Ángel Hernández. After seen her wife 30 years suffering of a disease and been numerously ask by her wife that she wanted the Euthanasia, he decided to fulfill the wish of his wife. He has not been the only one who has had to end up getting clandestine decisions, taking into account the State's refusal to provide a dignified death for a patient irremediably bound, to a speedy death and daily suffering.

On the other hand, according to the same previous document, the arguments given by supporters that think Euthanasia shouldn’t be legal are:

• Alternative treatments are available, such as palliative care and hospices. They say that it is not necessary to die, to kill the symptoms. Nearly all pain can be relieved with medicines.
• There is no ‘right’ to be killed and there are real dangers of ‘slippery slopes’. They argue that legalizing the doors to voluntary euthanasia could lead to involuntary euthanasia, by giving doctors the power to decide when a patient’s life is not worth living it. In the Netherlands in 1990 around 1,000 patients were killed without their require.
• We could never truly control it. Reports from the Netherlands, where euthanasia is legal, reveal that doctors do not always report it. So, they say that opening the doors to euthanasia could led to a catastrophe.
• The assumption that patients should have a right to die would impose on doctors a duty to kill. Ethically they argue that giving a ‘right to die’ for patients might well become a ‘duty to kill’ for others, so the job of doctor would transform into a murder.

Taking everything into account, as far as I’m concerned, I think euthanasia should always be requestable and available in all countries, making sure that the law is regulated by the government and all doctors are following it. When it comes to children or people with dementia, obviously always there should be a triple check, been really sure of their decisions. Answering the question of the beginning ‘’ Are these countries unconscious making euthanasia legal or should we follow their path?’’, I think countries prohibiting the legalization of euthanasia, such as Spain, they should think the issue again, and put into a balance the compassion towards the patient and the fear of not been able to control a new law.