Euthanasia: A Careless Practice?

Euthanasia is commonly known as the self-inflicted or assisted act of helping someone to die painlessly, often occurring among people with terminal diseases and usually done by lethal injection. Some people wish to leave this world in a peaceful manner, but many social and religious leaders are against it. Only just recently before the millennium it was legalized in one U.S. state, which is Oregon, but it could change at any time with the way the debate has been ongoing. It is unknown why the government has not just taken a stand and either said yes or no. there have been previous rulings by politicians that simply become overturned by the Supreme Court. It is understandable that most politicians have their own personal feelings, but there are people who are dying that feel the politicians would quickly change their minds if put in the same position. To better understand Euthanasia it would be necessary to look at the history, arguments, and the ongoing debate of the issue.

The word and practice of ‘Euthanasia’ first originated in ancient Greece around 400 B.C. It has often been translated as ‘a good death’. In the Greek city of Athens, the higher members of the justice system kept poison for anyone who wished to die. The famous Greek Physician Hippocrates was one of the earliest physicians who recorded medical documents. To most people today he is a symbol of long medical traditions and creator of the saying, “First do no harm.” Hippocrates stated in his own oath, “I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel.” He was one of the first who spoke against the practice of physician assisted suicide.

Attitudes on physician assisted suicide continued on through The Middle Ages and The Renaissance, but most notably in the twentieth century was when one of the worst atrocities in history was committed and it absolutely does attribute to assisted suicide. A website by the name of The History Place states, “In October of 1939 amid the turmoil of the outbreak of war Hitler ordered widespread “mercy killing” of the sick and disabled. Code named “Aktion T 4,” the Nazi euthanasia program to eliminate “life unworthy of life” at first focused on newborns and very young children.” Though these “mercy killings” did not happen just for people of Jewish denomination, it was even ordered on his own people. The mercy killings and the holocaust were what made people stay away from speaking of Euthanasia for a very long time. Germany in the 1940’s was a nation that was highly structured and socially efficient. When the calculated cruelty of their program to destroy ‘useless’ people was revealed to the world, people thought that if these atrocities happened in Germany they could happen anywhere in the world.

The age after World War II and towards the end of the twentieth century were filled with new transformations in medical technology, enabling people to live longer and not get sick as easy. Still though, there are certain diseases such as HIV and AIDS which are incurable or certain sicknesses which one may likely die because a treatment has not been discovered so it is felt there is still a need for someone to lessen their pain. Before the turn of the new millennium, physician assisted suicide was legalized in the State of Oregon. The state of Oregon’s ‘Death with Dignity Act’ was originally passed by voters in 1994. It permits terminally ill patients to request lethal drugs to hasten their deaths as long as they are mentally competent to make the decision, considered by two doctors, and have less than six months to live. “The court’s decision “removes a dark shadow hanging over all Oregon physicians delivering end-of-life care,” said Peter Rasmussen, a Portland physician who has assisted in more than a dozen patient deaths under the law.

The act was argued almost until 1998. Rita Market, of The International Task Force on Assisted Suicide reports that, shortly after Oregon’s legalization, the countries of Belgium and The Netherlands soon followed and made physician assisted suicide legal. Today, there are many arguments against the topic of physician assisted suicide, and for good reason. The first, is the rejection of the value of human life. There have been frequent botched attempts to even perform euthanasia, also quick involvement by doctors with little if any knowledge of a patients circumstances. How a licensed physician can get away with these things remains to be seen, it is thought that most physicians join the profession because they want to care. Most legal systems consider it murder, though in many jurisdictions a physician may lawfully decide not to prolong the patient’s life or may give drugs to relieve pain even if they shorten the patient’s life. Laws against euthanasia and assisted suicide are in place to prevent abuse and to protect people from uncaring doctors and others. They are not, and never have been, intended to make anyone suffer.

With health costs rising and our population aging, large changes have been developed in the way health care is financed, doctors and hospitals seem to be rewarded for doing less for the patients they should be caring for. Ill people are supposed to be able to talk to their physicians to help ease their pain, answer their questions, and receive at least reasonable attempts to prolong their life. It is horrifying to know that Insurance companies would actually promote physician assisted suicide. One must realize how much money that companies would be saving each time they suggest that someone should just end the suffering instead of being plugged up to a machine the rest of their life and the company having to pay millions. The last substantial argument on the topic is that the procedure would not be available for those who are just terminally ill. Those with depression or suicidal thoughts could easily receive the health care if they wanted to if physician assisted suicide was widely legalized. Strict regulations would have to be passed to make sure that people do not abuse physician assisted suicide, it would be available for those who are depressed and simply are suicidal in nature. Many believe that this is one of the facts that hold down the legalization of physician assisted suicide.

What continues to be ongoing with this debate to this day may be leaving people who read the paper a bit skeptical. But people believe that the pain of being terminally ill is almost unbearable, it could be physical or emotional pain. Many patients who wish to die by lethal injections are those with HIV or AIDS. Surveys show that many of the patients who want this fear the future, impending symptoms, or disease progression. Also they may see what the future holds or have seen others with the same disease as them. Advances in technology are extending peoples lives on a daily basis, but is extending a persons life worse extending a families suffering and finances? This thought brings the subject back to how insurance companies may try to push physician assisted suicide on people but it does have its positive points in the emotional characteristics. Perhaps the single argument that matters the most to those who wish to have this done or wish to have this legalized so that if the time comes they may choose this for themselves or a loved one in a future, is that a person has the right to choose their own fate. It is believed that the government should not be telling people what they can do with their own lives and that they should be able to request a physician assist them in their own death because it is what they want for their own personal benefit.

To conclude, maybe it is true though that the laws are in place to protect people against uncaring doctors and those who may be out to harm a patient and not to make them suffer. But as stated before, only those politicians who make the laws will truly understand the pain of the patient if they possibly find themselves in the same position one day. But the research does show that improvements are being made and the thoughts have already been considered that those who are not terminally ill will seek this as a way out. Which is why it is believed that if legalized, physician assisted suicide will be severely limited, most likely to the fact that the person seeking to have the procedure done must be critically ill.