Euthanasia: The right to live or the right to die?

what is euthanasia?

Euthanasia is the process of ending the life of one who is suffering from an incurable illness in a quick and painless manner. This is a topic that is constantly debated over and was only recently legalised in India in 2017. 

Forms of Euthanasia:

Due to it’s complications, euthanasia is divided into several types.

Active euthanasia is when a doctor directly ends another person’s life with necessary consent. Purposefully providing the patient with lethal doses of sedatives qualifies as a method of this.

Passive euthanasia is when the doctor limits life support to increase the speed at which the patient passes away.

Voluntary euthanasia: The patient opts for ending their own life in a fully conscious state of awareness.

Involuntary euthanasia: Here, consent for euthanasia is seeked for by a close family relative due to the patient’s unconscious state. In such a scenario doctors generally opt for passive euthanasia due to the patients limited brain function.

Euthanasia in it’s nature, seems justifiable for several reasons of morality and unjust due to it’s immorality. Because of this, laws regarding euthanasia are made very carefully and have a large number of potential scenarios explained in clauses and sub-clauses. 

Why euthanasia should be supported:

1. People suffering from extremely painful and borderline incurable diseases should not have to suffer until their disease kills them. They should be allowed relief from pain and suffering as soon as possible.

2. Seeing loved ones suffer through such rough conditions is an extremely difficult sight to see and providing them support which is barely going to contribute to their good health can be mentally taxing and exhausting.                       

3. After euthanisation, knowing that the person is now no longer in pain and suffering is better than watching them suffer every single day. It is a better closure than having to support a terminally ill patient to no end.

Why euthanasia is not supported:

1. Nobody has the right to decide to end another person’s life other than the person themself.
2. It is tough for the family to make a choice of such nature. While they do love their family member they are stuck deciding if they should let them suffer or if they should decide to put an end to their life.
3. The big “What if?”. “What if the doctors would have figured out a method to save the patient if they hadn’t decided to opt for euthanasia?” This is a train of thought that can be disastrous to the mental health of those who supported the decision of euthanisation. This is arguably worse than having to provide moral support to an extremely ill patient.

Purpose

This is not a very optimistic write-up. The purpose of this was to make people question their own sense of morality and bring forth the realisation of how morality is not just a rule book but requires a great deal of thought and defines what it is to be emotional beings.