The raging debate around euthanasia is caused, to a certain extent, by misunderstanding the term. For example, it is permitted by law to stop treating a patient if they explicitly request to do so. It is also a common practice to hasten a patient’s death by administering very high doses of painkillers, usually morphine, which eventually suppresses respiration and causes death (“Euthanasia, Passive”). Although these methods are legal and not considered questionable by most medical professionals and the public, in my opinion, morally they are no different from the active euthanasia or assisted suicide.
Those who oppose euthanasia usually have its active form in mind, that is, a doctor administering a dose of lethal drug to a patient (“BBC – Ethics – Euthanasia: Active And Passive Euthanasia”). This act is often compared to murder (“There Is No Defense, Euthanasia Is Murder: British Court”) and is used as major argument against euthanasia. Here is why, in my opinion, it is not sensible: imagine yourself forcefully holding a person under water and drowning them; now imagine yourself seeing someone forcefully hold a person underwater and not taking any action to save that person. Can you justify that you are less guilty in the second situation because it were not you drowning the person? Nevertheless, this is exactly what happens when doctors prescribe high doses of morphine to terminally ill patients: they allow themselves to watch the illness take the patient’s life.
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I believe that assisted suicide is different and should be allowed in cases when a person expresses the will to end their suffering and it is confirmed that their condition is impossible to cure. It does not place a burden of alleged murder on doctors because all they do is provide a dose of drug and it is up to the patient to administer it. Moreover, Dutch society have been practicing regulated euthanasia for more than a decade now and if it is to be implemented elsewhere, there is already a vast experience to build upon (“Euthanasia Legalized In The Netherlands”).
- “BBC – Ethics – Euthanasia: Active And Passive Euthanasia”. Bbc.co.uk. Web. 26 Aug. 2016.
- “Euthanasia Legalized In The Netherlands”. Infoplease.com. Web. 26 Aug. 2016.
- “There Is No Defense, Euthanasia Is Murder: British Court”. Lifesitenews.com. N.p., 2013. Web. 26 Aug. 2016.
