Euthanasia can be of various types:
By Consent
By Means:
passive
non-aggressive
aggressive
But after much deliberation I have concluded that it is more a process of alleviating one's excruciating pain than a cold blooded murder because:
Choice is a fundamental principle for liberal democracies and free market systems and one should have complete say over one' lifespan..how long the person wants to live or not and others have no right to interfere in his opinions
Only a person who is suffering can realise the excruciating pain that one has to undergo and only when there is no hope for cure or a better life does one wish to die..and some enlightened people prefer to term it has completely unethical!!!
Moreover a person who is extremely depressed with the quality of his life but is not able to undergo euthanasia may be driven to such extremes that he may be even forced to commit suicides. And I would like to stress upon this fact by quoting a small bit of statistics from USA Today which states that More than 30 terminally ill people from England have ended their lives since March 2003.
While the above are mainly the emotional and psychological reasons for my support for euthanasia, the following facts focus on some very hard truths which are quite unpalatable to the anti-euthanasia group.
Anti-euthanasia people are basically believers of trying to make a person live as much longer as possible at whatever cost it may be. But for economically developing countries like India where a majority of the common people fail to get two square meals a day paying the exorbitant cost of modern treatment for the longer life of a relative is an option which is simply unviable for many due to the huge recurring cost it entails upon the supporting person.
With the huge pressure on the limited infrastructure of the hospitals and the nursing homes being out of bounds for the poor and middle class people life saving treatment is still a dream that is yet to be fulfilled for the average Indian.
With the majority of the government hospitals being under staffed and under equipped the limited resources can be better utilized for treatment of those who have chance of survival rather than on those who do not even have a fighting chance of survival and are made to survive just for the sake of survival.
Most anti-euthanasia speakers will cry hoarse that euthanasia is violation of one's religion. But they need to study the religious guides thoroughly before drawing any conclusions.
In Catholic medical ethics as stated in the 1980 Declaration on Euthanasia issued by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ,official pronouncements strongly oppose active euthanasia, whether voluntary or not but
it also states that "When inevitable death is imminent... it is permitted in conscience to take the decision to refuse forms of treatment that would only secure a precarious and burdensome prolongation of life.
It can also be stated that the roman church regards it as morally acceptable to refuse extraordinary and aggressive medical means to preserve life. Refusing such treatment is not euthanasia but a proper acceptance of the human condition in the face of death.
On a concluding note I would like to state that euthanasia is and will remain a very controversial topic not because whether it is ethical or not but because of the way it is implemented on a case to case basis. There should be a constant monitoring organization to see that in cases of non voluntary euthanasia for people who are in a vegetative state or for those who cannot express their opinions, the power that lies in the hands of the nearest relatives are not mis-utilized.
