Euthanasia Pros and Cons. Medical advances that are quite recent, have overshadowed it’s long held ethical belief of compassion and care. The main issue has been the appropriate use of technological advances at the end of life. Should these advances be used on every patient despite the chance of an undesired outcome? Arguments against euthanasia. Eliminating the invalid: Euthanasia opposers argue that if we embrace ‘the right to death with dignity’, people with incurable and debilitating illnesses will be disposed from our civilised blogger.com practice of palliative care counters this view, as palliative care would provide relief from distressing symptoms and pain, and support to the patient as well Euthanasia I support Euthanasia, because it is the patient’s choice. “People have the right to die in a humane way” (“8 Main Pros and Cons of Legalizing Physician Assisted Suicide”). People with terminal illnesses go through horrible pain and suffering during the last months of their lives
Euthanasia: Right to life vs right to die
Try out PMC Labs and tell us what you think. Learn More. The word euthanasia, originated in Greece means a good death 1. Euthanasia encompasses various dimensions, from active introducing something to cause death to passive withholding treatment or supportive measures ; voluntary euthanasia pros essay to involuntary consent from guardian and physician assisted where physician's prescribe the medicine and patient or the third party administers the medication to cause death 23.
Request for premature ending of life has contributed to the debate about the role of such practices in contemporary health care, euthanasia pros essay. This debate cuts across complex and dynamic aspects such as, legal, ethical, human rights, euthanasia pros essay, religious, economic, spiritual, social and cultural aspects of the civilised society, euthanasia pros essay. The objective is to discuss the subject of euthanasia from the medical and human rights perspective given the background of the recent Supreme Court judgement 3 in this context.
In India abetment of suicide and attempt to suicide are both criminal offences. Inconstitutional validity of Indian Penal Code Section IPC Euthanasia pros essay was challenged in the Supreme Court 4. The Supreme Court declared that IPC Sec is unconstitutional, under Article 21 Right to Life of the constitution in a landmark judgement 4.
Inan interesting case of abetment of commission of suicide IPC Sec came to Supreme Court euthanasia pros essay. The accused were convicted in the trial court and later the conviction was upheld by the High Court. This made the Supreme Court to rethink and to reconsider the decision of right to die.
Immediately the matter was referred to a Constitution Bench of the Indian Supreme Court. The Court held that the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution does not include the right to die 5. Regarding suicide, the Supreme Court reconsidered its decision on suicide. Abetment of suicide IPC Sec and attempt to suicide IPC Sec are two distinct offences, hence Section can survive independent of Section It has also clearly stated that a person attempts suicide in a depression, euthanasia pros essay hence he needs help, rather than punishment.
Therefore, the Supreme Court has recommended to Parliament to consider the feasibility of deleting Section from the Indian Penal Code 3. The practice of palliative care counters this view, as palliative care would provide relief from distressing symptoms and pain, and support to the patient as well as the care giver. Palliative care is an active, compassionate and creative care for the dying 6.
It is the euthanasia pros essay of the State to protect life and the physician's duty to provide care and not to harm patients. If euthanasia is legalised, then there is a grave apprehension that the State may refuse to invest in health working towards Right to life.
Legalised euthanasia has led to a severe decline in the quality of care for terminally-ill patients in Holland 7. Hence, in a welfare state there should not be any role of euthanasia in any form, euthanasia pros essay.
Symptom of mental illness : Attempts to suicide euthanasia pros essay completed suicide are commonly seen in patients suffering from depression 8schizophrenia 9 and substance users It is also documented in patients suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder Hence, it is essential to assess the mental status of the individual seeking for euthanasia.
In classical teaching, euthanasia pros essay, attempt to suicide is a psychiatric emergency and it is considered as a desperate call for help or assistance. Several guidelines have been formulated for management of suicidal patients in psychiatry Hence, attempted suicide is considered as a sign of mental euthanasia pros essay Malafide intention : In the era of declining morality and justice, there is a possibility of misusing euthanasia by family members or relatives for inheriting the property of the patient, euthanasia pros essay.
The Supreme Court has also raised this issue in the recent judgement 3. Hence, euthanasia pros essay, to keep control over the medical professionals, the Indian Medical Council Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics Regulations, discusses euthanasia briefly in Chapter 6, Section 6.
There is an urgent need to protect patients and also medical practitioners caring the terminally ill patients from unnecessary lawsuit. Law commission had submitted a report no to the government on this issue Emphasis on care : Earlier majority of them died before they reached the hospital but now it is converse.
Now sciences had advanced to the extent, euthanasia pros essay, life can be prolonged but not to that extent of bringing back the dead one. This phenomenon has raised a complex situation. The principle is to add life to years rather than years to life with a good quality palliative care.
The intention is to provide care when cure is not possible by low cost methods. Hence, euthanasia for no cure illness does not have a logical argument. Whenever, there is no cure, the society euthanasia pros essay medical professionals become frustrated and the fellow citizen take extreme measures such as suicide, euthanasia or substance use. In such situations, palliative and rehabilitative care comes to the rescue of the patient and the family.
At times, doctors do suggest to the family members to have the patient discharged from the hospital wait for death to come, if the family or patient so desires. Various reasons are quoted for such decisions, such as poverty, non-availability of bed, futile intervention, resources can be utilised for other patients where cure is possible and unfortunately majority of our patient's family do accordingly. Many of the terminally ill patients prefer to die at home, with or without any proper terminal health care.
The societal perception needs to be altered and also the medical professionals need to focus on care rather in addition to just cure. The motive for many euthanasia requests is unawareness of alternatives. However, when patients hear that a lot can be done through palliative care, that the symptoms can be controlled, now and in the future, many do not want euthanasia anymore Commercialisation of health care : Passive euthanasia occurs in majority of the hospitals across the county, where poor patients and their family members refuse or withdraw treatment because of the huge cost involved in keeping them alive.
If euthanasia is legalised, then commercial health sector will serve death sentence to many disabled and elderly citizens of India for meagre amount of money. This has been highlighted in the Supreme Court Judgement 3 Research has revealed that many terminally ill patients requesting euthanasia, have major depression, euthanasia pros essay, and that the desire for death in terminal patients is correlated with the depression In Indian setting also, strong desire for death was reported by 3 euthanasia pros essay the advanced cancer patients, and these had severe depression They need palliative and rehabilitative care.
Palliative care actually provides death with dignity and a death considered good by the patient and the care givers. This argument is further defended for those, who have chronic debilitating illness even though it is not terminal such as severe mental illness.
Majority of such petitions euthanasia pros essay filed by the sufferers or family members or their caretakers. The caregiver's burden is huge and cuts across various domains such as financial, emotional, time, physical, mental and social. Hence, it is uncommon to hear requests from the family members of the person with psychiatric illness to give some poison either to patient or else to them.
Refusing care : Right to refuse medical treatment is well recognised in law, including medical treatment that sustains or prolongs life.
For example, a patient suffering from blood cancer can refuse treatment or deny feeds through nasogastric tube, euthanasia pros essay. Recognition of right to refuse treatment gives a way for passive euthanasia.
Many do argue that allowing medical termination of pregnancy before 16 wk is also a form of active involuntary euthanasia, euthanasia pros essay. This issue of mercy killing of deformed babies has already been in discussion in Holland Right to die : Many patients in a persistent vegetative state or else in chronic illness, euthanasia pros essay, do not want to be a burden on their family members.
Encouraging the organ transplantation : Euthanasia in terminally ill patients provides an opportunity to advocate for organ donation. This in turn will help many patients with organ failure waiting for transplantation.
On the contrary, the state does not own the responsibility of promoting, protecting and fulfilling the socio-economic rights such as right to food, right to water, right to education and right to health care, which are basic essential ingredients of right to life.
Till date, most of the States has not done anything to support the terminally ill people by providing for hospice care. If the State takes the responsibility of providing reasonable degree of health care, then majority of the euthanasia supporters will definitely reconsider their argument.
We do endorse the Supreme Court Judgement that our contemporary society and public health system is not matured enough to handle this sensitive issue, hence it needs to be withheld. However, this issue needs to be re-examined again after few years depending upon the evolution of the society with regard to providing health care to the disabled and public health sector with regard to providing health care to poor people.
The Supreme Court judgement to withhold decision on this sensitive issue is a first step towards a new era of health care in terminally ill patients. The Judgment laid down is to preserve harmony within a society, when faced with a complex medical, social and legal dilemma.
There is a need to enact a legislation to protect terminally ill patients and also medical euthanasia pros essay caring for them as per the recommendation of Law Commission Report There is also an urgent need to invest in our health care system, so that poor people suffering from ill health can access free health care. National Center for Biotechnology Informationeuthanasia pros essay, U.
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Journal List Indian J Med Res v. Indian J Med Res. PMCID: PMC Santosh K. Author information Copyright and License information Disclaimer. snahmin mbseuthanasia pros essay, Email: moc, euthanasia pros essay. liamg snahmin. Copyright : © The Indian Journal of Medical Research. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.
This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. References 1. Lewy G. Assisted suicide in US and Europe. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc; Dowbiggin I, euthanasia pros essay. A merciful end: The euthanasia movement in modern America.
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The decision to legalize euthanasia comes with a lot of grey area and is often referred to as a slippery slope. There are many positives to legalizing euthanasia such as a patients right to die. “ The right of a competent, terminally ill person to avoid excruciating pain and embrace a timely and dignified death bears the sanction of history and is implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.” (Euthanasia Arguments against euthanasia. Eliminating the invalid: Euthanasia opposers argue that if we embrace ‘the right to death with dignity’, people with incurable and debilitating illnesses will be disposed from our civilised blogger.com practice of palliative care counters this view, as palliative care would provide relief from distressing symptoms and pain, and support to the patient as well Euthanasia I support Euthanasia, because it is the patient’s choice. “People have the right to die in a humane way” (“8 Main Pros and Cons of Legalizing Physician Assisted Suicide”). People with terminal illnesses go through horrible pain and suffering during the last months of their lives
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