Documented Essay on:

Legalization of Euthanasia
Imagine you wake up someday and notice youre in a hospital with what seems like a million tubes
running into your body and you are lying immobilized on a bed. Even though you can feel excruciating
pain, theres not much you can do about it. Now imagine youre a 100 days ahead of that day and every
single minute of the past 100 days have been the same. The same pain, same room, same ceiling you
sometimes share your thoughts with.
In a world where Kill me now has become such a common phrase that you can hear it from someone
who waited in queue for 5 minutes or sent a stupid text to their crush, not many of us think about the
people who say that phrase and actually mean it. In a study that appeared in the New England Journal of
Medicine, cancer and heart disease accounted for 18 percent of all deaths in 1900. But today, that
figure's jumped to 63 percent. In addition to being responsible for a greater share of deaths overall, the
absolute number of people being killed by these chronic conditions has also grown, from 201 people out
of every 100,000 in 1900 to nearly 380 per 100,000 today. [1] Given the high increase in the number of
people with such illnesses, appeals to legalize Euthanasia and Physicians assisted suicide have been
growing, making this topic pave its path into debates and controversies.
Euthanasia and Physicians assisted suicide, though sometimes perceived as the same, are two fairly
different practices. Euthanasia is defined as the painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable
and painful disease or in an irreversible coma and is derived from two Greek words Eu and
thanatos which mean Good death [2] Physicians assisted suicide, although serving the same
purpose, is a practice of the doctor assisting the patient suffering from a terminal illness in committing
suicide, usually by prescribing a lethal drug. While these practices are not legal in most countries,
theyve been legalized in the Netherlands, Belgium,

and Luxembourg, Switzerland, Germany, Albania, Colombia, Japan and in the US states
of Washington, Oregon, Vermont, New Mexico and Montana. A situation like this, where different parts
of the world have different views on the same issue is an indication of how strong the conflict in
opinions about the issue is.
According to a study, 3.6% of people in the1990 study were said to have asked for euthanasia at some
point in the last year of life. The extent to which such views were determined by the experience of pain,
other distressing symptoms, dependency and social and cultural factors such as religious belief and
social class was explored. The finding that dependency was important in causing the feeling that an
earlier death would have been better, as well as requests for euthanasia, was related to the public
debate about euthanasia, which often contains the assertion that fear of pain is a dominant factor. Pain
was found to be a significant factor in death from cancer, but not as important for other causes of
death. Social class, place of residence of the deceased, and strength and type of religious faith were
found to be largely insignificant in influencing feelings about an earlier death and requests for
euthanasia .[3]
From the viewpoint of a person who supports the legalization of euthanasia, every person has the right
to die. "The right of a competent, terminally ill person to avoid excruciating pain and embrace a timely
and dignified death bears the sanction of history and is implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.[4] A
few other arguments include arguments that a civilized society should allow people to die in dignity and
without pain, and should allow others to help them do so if they cannot manage it on their own. In
2005, 51 year old Tony Nicklinson suffered from a shock that paralyzed him neck-down. 7 years later,
Nicklinson described having no 'privacy or dignity left' and said his right to choose life or death had been
taken away. 'I cannot scratch if I itch, I cannot pick my nose if it is blocked and I can only eat if I am fed
like a baby - only I wont grow out of it, unlike the baby. I am washed, dressed and put to bed by
caregivers who are, after all, still strangers. You try defecating to order while suspended in a sling over a

commode and see how you get on. [5] In another case, Ramon Sanpedro, who survived an attack that
paralyzed him, pleaded for mercy killing. As an appeal, he wrote "Why die? Because every journey has
its departure time and only the traveler has the privilege and the right to choose the last day to get out.
Why to die? Because at times the journey of no return is the best path that reason can show us out of
love and respect for life, so that life may have a dignified death." [6]
While a lot of cases with plausible reasons for the legalization are tirelessly being presented, there is a
part of the population that has equally credible reason for the non-legalization of these practices. Some
of the arguments put forth by the non-supporters are that Voluntary euthanasia is the start of a slippery
slope that leads to involuntary euthanasia and the killing of people who are thought undesirable. Also,
there are various consequences of legalizing euthanasia and physicians assisted suicide that include the
lack of a way to properly regulate euthanasia, the terminally ill might not be given as much care as they
are given without euthanasia as an option. Some other arguments cover the religious views on the
practices and these views do not support the legalization either. As a counter argument for the
supporters of euthanasia who propose that the choice of death is a right, upon being asked if Euthanasia
or Physician-Assisted Suicide Be Legalized, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops answered
"As Catholic leaders and moral teachers, we believe that life is the most basic gift of a loving God- a gift
over which we have stewardship but not absolute dominion. [7] Another reason for the nonlegalization of euthanasia is the Hippocratic Oath. The prohibition against killing patients... stands as
the first promise of self-restraint sworn to in the Hippocratic Oath, as medicine's primary taboo: 'I will
neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect'.[8] For
which the supporters of legalization of euthanasia suggest that "Over time the Hippocratic Oath has
been modified on a number of occasions as some of its tenets became less and less acceptable.
References to women not studying medicine and doctors not breaking the skin have been deleted. The

much-quoted reference to 'do no harm' is also in need of explanation. Does not doing harm mean that
we should prolong a life that the patient sees as a painful burden?[9]
While there are appeals that are strong enough to convince us that euthanasia and physicians assisted
suicide should be made legal, there are equally strong and convincing arguments that give us an idea
about the negative aftermaths that would occur if the legalization were to happen. With a scenario like
this, it doesnt come as a surprise that some countries governments have been convinced enough to
legalize the practices while the other countries have denied the idea completely or are still considering
the proposals put forth by the supporters.

[1]Fung, Brian. "Chart: What Killed Us Then and Now." Theatlantic.com. The Washington Post, 22 June
e2012. Web. 19 Dec. 2014. <http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/06/chart-what-killed-usthen-and-now/258872/>.
[2] Euthanasia Wikipedia.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthanasia
[3] Seale, Clive, and Julia Addington-Hall. "Euthanasia: Why People Want to Die Earlier." Social Science &
Medicine: 647-54. Pri
[4] ACLU Amicus Brief in Vacco v. Quill(72 KB) American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Dec. 10, 1996

[5] Miller, DANIEL. "My Life Is Miserable, Demeaning and Undignified Says Locked-in Syndrome Sufferer
as He Asks High Court Judges to Give Him the Right to Die." Daily Mail 19 June 2012. Daily Mail. Web.
<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2161494/Tony-Nicklinson-euthanasia-My-life-miserableundignified-says-locked-syndrome-sufferer.html>.
[6] "Euthanasia, Right to Die: Cases." Euthanasia, Right to Die: Cases. Web. 19 Dec. 2014.
<http://www.euthanasia.cc/cases.html>.
[7] United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
"Statement on Euthanasia," on www.usccb.org Sep. 12, 1991
[8] - Leon Kass, MD, PhD Addie Clark Harding Professor, Committee on Social Thought and the College,
University of Chicago "Neither for Love nor Money," Public Interest Winter 1989
[9] - Philip Nitschke, MD Director and Founder, Exit International "Euthanasia Sets Sail," National Review
Online June 5, 2001