Euthanasia is the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals (as persons or domestic animals) in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy. It's really like actually taking the life of someone who is extremely ill and in pain. There are different types of euthanasia such as,
voluntary,
involuntary,
non-voluntary,
active and
passive. Active euthanasia is often called "mercy killing" because you are literally killing someone when there are others ways to relieve the pain that there in. There have been many advances in pain management such as,
hospices and
palliative care. It is usually considered a criminal homicide but voluntary and passive are non-criminal. It's just non-ethical to kill someone when there are other ways to keep them alive. It also goes against the doctor's
hippocratic oath which every doctor must sign. It's just like a murder because someone else is doing it, you're not actually committing suicide yourself. It lets doctors and families just give up on the patient's recovery much too early, what if the very next day someone found a cure for their illness? I just feel that euthanasia is morally wrong and should be illegal.
Leigh,
ReplyDeleteYou should have know with the experience I had with my husband that I could not let this go by unanswered. After having experienced this first hand, I believe I have some expertise on this.
In June 2005, Fred, my husband, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Never one to settle for what he was told, we got a second opinion at a research hospital. The cancer had wound around blood vessels and could not be surgically removed. Pallitive care was the only option to slow down the process of cancer for a month or two from the otherwise three to four months he was given.
Fred did go through the radiation and chemo therapy that was to alleviate his symptoms; however, within the first two to three weeks of treatment, all the mucus membranes of his body blistered. Some of them grew two to three inches across. After that happened, Fred refused treatment. He said, "This is killing me faster than the cancer." At best, he had three to four months to live. The two to three months that he would gain from pallitive treatment were not worth the pain to him.
It's true that he was put on morphine, which clouded his thinking. He did have hallucinations from the medicine. However, when he could think clearly. He begged me to take him out of his pain, which was so intense that they had to use a lifeport to pump in the morphine. Too often, it did no good as the pain course nonstop through his body. I wanted to help him, but I was afraid for me. I was afraid of whether or not it was the morphine talking or the legal ramifications of having the courage to do what he wanted.
The hospice nurse arrived early morning to assist with the pain the last day. All she could do was give him more morphine. I was by his side, along with his sister, when he died. As his skin turned blue, all I could think of is that I wished I could have helped him when he asked.
Why, when someone only had three to four months to live, do people insist that it is only ethical to let someone suffer? That the patient has no rights to make a decision for himself? Yes. Cures can be found given time, but when there is no time, how can anyone justify the pain someone has to suffer? I think it is so the regulators can feel comfortable with themselves. It is not for the patient.
I agree that euthanasia is a touchy subject when you know it's dealing with a person's life, but I do not feel that it should be illegal.
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting to learn that there are different types of euthanasia and although I do not think euthanasia should be illegal, I do feel that non-voluntary euthanasia should be illegal or not be put in the euthanasia category at all. If someone does not give consent to being euthanized, how is that not a homicide? The only exception I see in non-voluntary euthanasia being "right" is if the person is stuck in a vegetative state with no release from a hospital. Terri Schiavo is someone "euthanized" that I would consider as an exception.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terri_Schiavo_case
Terri Schiavo was put in a vegetative state after suffering cardiac arrest and suffered brain damage due to lack of oxygen. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, who paid for Terri's medical expenses, felt that she should be disconnected from her feeding tube, Terri's parents felt different. Terri was later "euthanized" and following her autopsy, was said to be blind.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8225637/
I find Terri's story as an example of why I think euthanasia should stay legal. Why should someone suffer as the stay alive just because their "loved-ones" can't let go. I find it similar to euthanizing a pet if they get severely hurt or ill. If someone is suffering, they should be let go so they do not have to deal with it anymore. I know that if I were to ever become severely ill or even become a vegetable, I would definitely want someone to euthanize me so i'm not in pain anymore.
I think that euthanasia should be legal for both animals and humans. I liked that you told the distinctions for the different kinds of euthanasia; I did not know there were so many different categories. I understand that a cure for things like cancer could possibly be made tomorrow, but with what I’ve been through with both humans and animals has made me more aware that euthanasia just has to be an option for all.
ReplyDeleteBoth my grandparents died with cancer. My grandfather died first with lung cancer. He was given four months to live upon his diagnosis. I was a little kid, but my mother told me of the horrors she witnessed him go through when his lungs were eaten up with tumors when I was older. He was a tuff man, but he looked at her in such misery and he still felt pain no matter how much pain medicines were administered in him. To avoid having him die in a nursing home, my mother chose to take care of him at his house. When he died, my mother said that she could see where the tumors had vigorously multiplied up to the edge of his skin on his chest.
My grandmother died when I was eleven. I had first-hand experience with her illness and death. We were really close, and from the point of her diagnoses to her passing, I felt numb the whole time. She had stomach cancer and had six months to live. The cancer quickly put her in the need of help, so my mom once again took care of her last helpless parent. Nanny came to live with us; I gave up my room for her to stay in. The cancer in her stomach made her unable to eat just about anything. She had real bad diabetes, so one day when she hadn’t eaten all day, she had a seizure and was taken to the hospital. Once there, the doctors said that she had to stay there for surgery. She had exploratory surgery to find where exactly the tumors were and how big. While in the recovery unit, she was left on the heating blanket too long and had a big patch of third degree burns on her back. The doctors told us that she had a few tumors that were pretty big. As her days in the hospital passed she got worse and they eventually had to transport her to a Hospice nursing home. From that point on she refused to let me or anyone else in our family besides my mom, uncle, and aunt come and see her. Her cancer rapidly spread from just a few to her whole stomach. My grandmother weighed, healthy, at about two hundred pounds, but getting closer to her death her weight slipped off quickly. She stopped eating and cried out in pain every day. She died four months after her diagnosis at about seventy pounds.
I have had several pets /rescued animals die in my lifetime. None of them were euthanized, but I wish they all had been. One story that sticks with me is a rescued pregnant cat my mom had wonder up while she was cleaning a house. She looked about half way through her pregnancy, but the next day she went into labor. I was fourteen and all alone at home while my mom was working. She had five kittens, but two were still born. The other three looked very bad. They were so little and the runt was the size of my pinky. We were going to take them to the vet the next day, but the runt didn’t make it through the night. The vet said that the kittens were born way too early; their lungs were not even fully developed yet. The last two died three days later.
I tell you all of this because I know that it’s morally wrong to kill something, but this concept goes out the window when you watch the people/animals you love slowly suffer and hang on the edge of life by a the tip of a nail. Euthanasia should be legal and not frowned upon. If most people would in an instant euthanize their dog, then why not euthanize a loved one when they beg you to because of a terminal injury or illness?