Monday, February 16, 2009

EUTHANASIA

Mohan was a 50 year old agent of LIC .He enjoyed classical music and loved drawing canvases. He had two sons who both were married and were leading successful careers. One tragic day, Mohan’s scooter collided with a truck and he suffered severe head injuries and he passed into Coma. He underwent several surgeries; however there was no major improvement .Doctors gave him a 5 to 10% chance of recovering consciousness. However after a month’s time in the ICU, his sons who didn’t want to pay the hospital bills anymore took the decision to put him to sleep forever. Mohan was injected with a lethal drug to end his life as well as his agonies and suffering.
Let me tell you another story. Christine Smith a 21 yr old sophomore was hit by a drunken driver and was paralyzed. Her brain was dead and only her vital organs were functioning. Doctors lost all hopes but her parents were pertinacious .They transferred her to a medical care centre. For 20 years the Smiths didn’t lose their faith and one bright afternoon they got a call and the voice on the other side yelled Hey Mom!!! It was none other than Christine who had fully recovered. It could be called a scientific wonder or God’s miracle.

After hearing the 2 stories what do you feel? Is Euthanasia morally correct or is it rationally justified???
Euthanasia is the action of killing a person who is terminally ill with or without his consent to minimize the pain and suffering.
The controversy lies between two different perspectives; moral view of life versus the rational view of life.
Euthanasia is of different types .They being passive Euthanasia, Active Euthanasia, Physician assisted suicide and involuntary suicide.
Passive euthanasia relates to hastening the death of a person by altering some form of support and letting nature take its course.
Active Euthanasia involves causing the death of a person through a direct action, in response to a request from that person.
Physician assisted suicide A physician supplies the information and the means for committing suicide (say a prescription for lethal dose of sleeping pills, or a supply of carbon monoxide gas) to a person, so that they can easily terminate their own life.
Involuntary suicide: This term is used chiefly to describe the killing of a person who has not explicitly requested aid in dying. This is done to patients who are in a Persistent Vegetative State and will probably never recover consciousness.

Euthanasia could be a God given gift to someone who is suffering from tantalizing pain and has a narrow chance of surviving. For such a person as suitable called Mercy Killing would be the best alternative however the world stands on HOPE and if its missing then the world wouldn’t be progressing the way it is.
But if Euthanasia is legalized, the doctors will take the effortless approach to rather put the patient to sleep forever than to innovate treatments for their recovery. It’s been researched that in Netherlands where Euthanasia is legalized, palliative care knowledge is absent among doctors.
For the relatives and well wishers of the patient, it would be a boon as they would be spared from the agony of helplessly watching their loved ones suffer.
The Medical Insurance companies to save a buck or two would exploit the law by pressurizing the doctors and the family members to rather take the Euthanasia path than to fight for whatever little hope is there.
It will be an option for a family who cannot afford expensive medical bills for the treatment of a terminally ill relative. Rather than getting bankrupt a rational decision has to made ,which could be Euthanasia.
In a corruption ridden country like India, this law will be prone to abuse by criminals for committing murders.

The present world is a capitalist one where the significance of money has sidelined the value of human life. In the present day scenario, the families of patient are looking at the situation from a practical view point and are considering the easier course, Yes, the course of Euthanasia.
Hope is the leg of the chair, the world on which we are resting comfortably and when hope falters, the world will fall down shattered.
This practice violates the basic postulation of Humanity which is; when man doesn’t have the power to revive life what authority does he have to destroy it.
Euthanasia is the epidemic of life and what it needs is the moral justification to propagate itself.
Euthanasia is the necessary evil of the 22nd century and it’s our responsibility to ensure that it’s appropriately and sparingly used so that next time I m in a hospital room and a physician walks in I don’t want to wonder whether is he wearing the white coat of the healer or the black hood of the executioner

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