The Supreme Court of India (SCOI) has started a fresh discussion on allowing active euthanasia. Ever since, everyone has had a say on the subject. While the doctors are cautiously optimistic regarding the subject, religious bodies have still maintained it as a taboo subject. I have very strong views too and hence I planned to write this blog to share them.
Euthanasia quite literally means “good death”. It signifies that life without dignity is meaning less and while the right to life is necessary equally necessary is the right to good death. The immediate response from religious bodies would be, “How can we support suicide?” Well, it’s not suicide so they might as well reconsider the position. While suicide is a defined as “hurting ones’ own interests”, euthanasia is an individual’s right to have a good death with minimum sufferings. There will be further questions on the possible misuse and on the religious angle of “only God can take the life”. While these may seem valid arguments, they are in fact only used to avoid discussion on the subject. Today, we need to discuss this subject more than ever as we have a historic chance to give true dignity to death as life.
Life as envisioned by God is not the state of not being dead. In fact life meant a person is alive with dignity. Life means being open to possibilities. If you take away the possibilities, it’s a state of death already and the fact that you are breathing does not actually count. If we take away the dignity and force individuals to linger on, we are in fact enforcing cruelty on our fellow beings. When we see an animal badly hurt and in excruciating pain we have enough humanity to call for a Vet who puts it to sleep and takes it out of its misery. We also justify the action of taking a life by stating that it is an act of mercy and God teaches us to be merciful to fellow beings. When a judge condemns a convict to death and the society gives its approval to the decision as “necessary to rid us from the evil”. Have we ever heard anyone say to a judge or a Vet, “God gives life and only he can take it?” When it comes to fellow human beings in pain and suffering who are begging for a release from life, surprisingly the same God teaches us to be cruel; at least that’s what the preachers have us believe. In the name of God, we let our close relatives linger in extreme inhuman pain and suffering.
SCOI has already moved from its earlier position on right to life as enshrined in the constitution. The states had legislated to make suicide illegal and a punishable offense to enforce the “right to life”. SCOI has since struck this down. An attempt to suicide is no longer a legal offense. I do not support suicide on moral and ethical grounds, but I strongly feel that our country should focus more energy and funds to provide help (financial / counseling) to individuals who are driven to the extreme to commit suicide. This could be a way to ensure the “right to life”. The SCOI has also come out in support of passive euthanasia – where doctors (supported by DNR – do not resuscitate form) decide to take a patient off life support systems to enable a peaceful death rather than keeping them alive in vegetative state hooked onto life support. There are countries where individuals make DNR provisions within their will and assign lawyers to enforce the will in case they ever meet that eventuality. The question now arises, why India has not made enough provisions to respect individuals’ right to life as well as right to end life in face of no hope. We still depend on some relative to make that decision for us in case of that eventuality and many a times emotions take a precedence and the patient is forced to linger on life support for years in a vegetative state. To avoid misuse of provisions, every state could have a board of doctors who study the case and decide if there is any hope of medical revival. Individuals must be encouraged to make a living will on the same lines one takes a life insurance. These two inputs could ensure that there is no misuse of the provisions of euthanasia and we could finally move from a passive euthanasia to active euthanasia where doctor will be allowed to inject the patient with serum that ends the life. These injections are usually painless and the patient is put under anesthesia before administering the serum. Imagine how much it would help out fellow human beings who are presently allowed to suffer in vegetative states with no hope just because the rest of us are too stubborn to let them have a dignified end to a life lived in dignified manner.
Let’s vote for right to dignity above all else.
So long…..
Euthanasia quite literally means “good death”. It signifies that life without dignity is meaning less and while the right to life is necessary equally necessary is the right to good death. The immediate response from religious bodies would be, “How can we support suicide?” Well, it’s not suicide so they might as well reconsider the position. While suicide is a defined as “hurting ones’ own interests”, euthanasia is an individual’s right to have a good death with minimum sufferings. There will be further questions on the possible misuse and on the religious angle of “only God can take the life”. While these may seem valid arguments, they are in fact only used to avoid discussion on the subject. Today, we need to discuss this subject more than ever as we have a historic chance to give true dignity to death as life.
Life as envisioned by God is not the state of not being dead. In fact life meant a person is alive with dignity. Life means being open to possibilities. If you take away the possibilities, it’s a state of death already and the fact that you are breathing does not actually count. If we take away the dignity and force individuals to linger on, we are in fact enforcing cruelty on our fellow beings. When we see an animal badly hurt and in excruciating pain we have enough humanity to call for a Vet who puts it to sleep and takes it out of its misery. We also justify the action of taking a life by stating that it is an act of mercy and God teaches us to be merciful to fellow beings. When a judge condemns a convict to death and the society gives its approval to the decision as “necessary to rid us from the evil”. Have we ever heard anyone say to a judge or a Vet, “God gives life and only he can take it?” When it comes to fellow human beings in pain and suffering who are begging for a release from life, surprisingly the same God teaches us to be cruel; at least that’s what the preachers have us believe. In the name of God, we let our close relatives linger in extreme inhuman pain and suffering.
SCOI has already moved from its earlier position on right to life as enshrined in the constitution. The states had legislated to make suicide illegal and a punishable offense to enforce the “right to life”. SCOI has since struck this down. An attempt to suicide is no longer a legal offense. I do not support suicide on moral and ethical grounds, but I strongly feel that our country should focus more energy and funds to provide help (financial / counseling) to individuals who are driven to the extreme to commit suicide. This could be a way to ensure the “right to life”. The SCOI has also come out in support of passive euthanasia – where doctors (supported by DNR – do not resuscitate form) decide to take a patient off life support systems to enable a peaceful death rather than keeping them alive in vegetative state hooked onto life support. There are countries where individuals make DNR provisions within their will and assign lawyers to enforce the will in case they ever meet that eventuality. The question now arises, why India has not made enough provisions to respect individuals’ right to life as well as right to end life in face of no hope. We still depend on some relative to make that decision for us in case of that eventuality and many a times emotions take a precedence and the patient is forced to linger on life support for years in a vegetative state. To avoid misuse of provisions, every state could have a board of doctors who study the case and decide if there is any hope of medical revival. Individuals must be encouraged to make a living will on the same lines one takes a life insurance. These two inputs could ensure that there is no misuse of the provisions of euthanasia and we could finally move from a passive euthanasia to active euthanasia where doctor will be allowed to inject the patient with serum that ends the life. These injections are usually painless and the patient is put under anesthesia before administering the serum. Imagine how much it would help out fellow human beings who are presently allowed to suffer in vegetative states with no hope just because the rest of us are too stubborn to let them have a dignified end to a life lived in dignified manner.
Let’s vote for right to dignity above all else.
So long…..
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