Support For Euthanasia?

by John Hawkins | June 30, 2004 11:59 pm

Much as it pains me to do so, I’m forced to agree with the French[1] on this sure to be controversial issue….

“PARIS France intends to changes its laws to allow terminally ill patients to opt for death over further treatment without legalizing euthanasia, Health Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said on Wednesday.
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Douste-Blazy, speaking after a parliamentary report called for new laws to assure patients a dignified and painless death, said the National Assembly had a duty to clarify the rules for treating the terminally ill. The report said France should not simply copy the voluntary euthanasia now legal in Belgium and the Netherlands but that it should let patients or their families choose to end treatments that are simply delaying death. This would lift from doctors the threat of being charged with a crime if they stop caring for a terminal patient. PARIS France intends to changes its laws to allow terminally ill patients to opt for death over further treatment without legalizing euthanasia, Health Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said on Wednesday.

Douste-Blazy, speaking after a parliamentary report called for new laws to assure patients a dignified and painless death, said the National Assembly had a duty to clarify the rules for treating the terminally ill. The report said France should not simply copy the voluntary euthanasia now legal in Belgium and the Netherlands but that it should let patients or their families choose to end treatments that are simply delaying death.”

I suspect that a majority of people reading RWN are not going to agree with me on this and I can certainly understand why. Allowing people to take their own lives does cheapen respect for life, there’s always the slight chance of a “miracle cure”, I’ll be the first to agree that the primary proponent of this, Jack Kervorkian[2], comes across as a creepy, death obsessed loon, and there’s certainly the possibility that euthanasia is a step down a slippery slope.

However, in the end, I simply cannot look at someone with a terminal disease, whose life is down to nothing but fitful sleep, drug induced stupors, and sheer agony and say, “Sorry, you have to live through that torture until your body gives out on you”.

To wake up, every single day, knowing that you’re dying, knowing that today, like yesterday, like tomorrow, is going to be nothing more than an attempt to endure anguish and torment as your body betrays you…nobody should have to live through that if they don’t want to.

Nor should someone in that situation be put in a position where they have to commit suicide. If someone asks for help in ending their own life in that situation, I think the humane thing for society to do is to allow it to be provided. At that point, it’s just an act of mercy…

Endnotes:
  1. agree with the French: http://www.iht.com/articles/527375.html
  2. Jack Kervorkian: http://abcnews.go.com/reference/bios/kevorkian.html

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