By Poyi (Natalie) Leung
Euthanasia has long been a never-ending controversy in most part of the world, except The Netherlands and Belgium where it is a “legalised” act. Personally, I neither support nor oppose the practice of ending a person’s life for the benefit of that person, but I do think it’s ethically acceptable if someone is really in so much pain especially when there is no hope of recovery (I’m non-religious).
I read this news from the newspaper three days ago – there is a one-year-old baby boy in the UK who is suffering from Congenital Myasthenic Syndrome and is unable to breathe on his own, and only by using the machines he can be kept alive.
Then, the mother hoped to set her son free from endless pain and remove the facilities that have been keeping the little boy alive. Yet, the father opposed and argued that an operation to create a surgical airway in his son’s cervical trachea would allow air to enter his lungs, and as such the little boy should be able to survive on his own.
As if it was not sad enough – because of the disagreement the parents took this to the court and let the judges decide whether their son should live or die. What a heartbroken development of the entire tragedy…
Despite the boy has no brain damage, a medical specialist said his lungs are like paralyzed, and very likely he will have to endure “unbearable pain” in all his lifetime and there is no hope of recovery.
So, the key is that the boy is too young, and of course too sick, to speak for his own. If he was able to show his will and make a voluntary request to his family and doctor, I reckon it would be less a problem – at least I believe this is his life and certainly he has the right to control how his life will be like.
But it doesn’t mean that I think it’s okay to commit suicide for losing your beloved ones, going bankrupt, failing to get good marks in schools or other strange reasons. Yes, from my perspective a person can end his or her life, but whether or not it is worth it is completely another issue.
Go back to mercy killing: what if the patient is in deep coma, too young or simply unable to tell others what he or she wants? So I guess his or her parents, if still alive, are the only ones having the right to make a decision, given that they live in a country or region where euthanasia or assisted suicide is non-punishable.
In The Netherlands which was the first country to legalise euthanasia in April 2002, it was reported that most of the physician assisted deaths concerned cancer patients.
If patients’ suffering is unbearable with no prospect of improvement, how many of them will choose to end their lives on their own, meaning committing suicide instead, particularly in places where euthanasia is illegal?
We had read a lot of news about people killing themselves because they were so sick or old. So what’s the difference? Committing suicide in this kind of situation is more or less a form of euthanasia, except the person who does it is not a physician but the patient himself.
I guess dignity is the last thing a person wants before leaving the world.
