Euthanasia and Assisted Death

chillibreeze writer — Nanda Gopal

Euthanasia is a term still new to many of us. It is a Greek term meaning ‘good death’. It means self imposed death in a relatively painless and merciful way. Euthanasia is most often confused with another term, ‘assisted death’. The difference is, in euthanasia, the person who is dying performs the last act while in assisted death another person performs the act. For example a physician can help in the process by giving lethal medications through the oral or intravenous routes. If the physician himself administers it then it is physician-assisted suicide, but, if he sets up the injection apparatus and the person who wants to die presses the button then it translates into euthanasia.

There has been a long standing debate on whether euthanasia should be legalized. On one side it has been argued that for people on life support systems and people with long standing diseases causing much pain and distress, euthanasia is a better choice. It helps in relieving them from pain and misery. In cases like terminal cancers when the patient is in much pain and when people associated with them also are put through a lot of pain and misery, it is much more practical and humane to grant the person his/her wish to end his/her own life in a relatively painless and merciful way.

On the other hand there are ethical issues and political issues concerning the same subject. Oregon, Belgium and The Netherlands are the only places in the world that have laws specifically permitting assisted suicide. In 1997, Oregon was the first to enact the physician-assisted suicide law in the United States. This law, known as the Death with Dignity Act, requires the Oregon Department of Human Services to collect and analyze data on the people involved in the act and to publish annual reports. In this way statistics are maintained. This law allows only physician-assisted suicide. Euthanasia is still illegal.

In conclusion, though it is not ethical to assist or be involved in a human beings death, in some cases, taking into consideration the involved person’s quality of life, euthanasia should be legalized. It will lead to a person having an option to consult his/her medical practitioner and choosing the right time and right way to end his/her life. But at the same time laws should be in place to make sure that there are proper standards in place to avoid unnecessary deaths in our present day stress filled lives.

References

International task force on euthanasia and assisted suicide. For more info click here.
Physician-Assisted suicide, Department of Health Services, Oregon at Click here

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Nanda writes for chillibreeze.

Euthanasia and Assisted Death

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