Wednesday 16 December 2009

Euthanasia

I would like to talk about something that has touched me this week. I phoned a friend from home to check in like I do every now and again and when I asked the standard opening question "how are you?" I did not get the standard reply I expected. She was not in a good way. It turned out her auntie who suffered from Motor Neurone Disease had come to the end. For those of you who don't know, Motor Neurone Disease causes all your muscles to stop working until eventually your vital organs shut down. It is also the main cause of euthanasia (which I will come to later). When this disease takes over, your brain is the last thing to go so even after victims speech is gone they can feel every bit of pain but can not communicate it to those around so often family are faced with a situation where the patient wants to be taken away to die, as 'unethical' as that is... you would not allow an animal to live in excruciating pain would you?

Anyway back to my story, my friend's aunty's heart had stopped but they managed to resuscitate her long enough to take her home and have her oxygen mask removed around all her loved ones, so they could all say goodbye in turn. She had already told her family several months earlier that when the time came she did not want to be kept alive.

It made me wonder how I would handle such a situation. Would I selfishly want a loved one to be kept on oxygen and have their painful life prolonged for my own benefit or would I allow them to pass away when the time had come. I hope the latter but it must be heart-breaking and I can't bare to imagine myself in those shoes. 

The long winded point I am trying to make is... if I was in so much pain that I could no longer even tell people. I would want to die. No question. I believe that a person has the right to die with dignity and I believe in Euthanasia. Any thoughts?

3 comments:

  1. As much as it hurts to say it, death is the ultimate destination for everything that lives and indeed it is inevitable. From a christian perspective it would be unethical to put someone off the oxygen support system - just as it is taboo to masterbate because ,there is a general belief within christianity which states that ,the act of masterbating is akin to mass murder(killing of innocent unborn souls).
    If i were to move away from the conventional beliefs i would advocate for the removal of the oxygen support machine and let someone suffering die. But the conscience of allowing someone to die will obviously remain embedded in your mind forever.

    From another biblical analogy: it is written , man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble. He comes forth like a flower and withers away. His days are already determined that he can not surpass the bounds of his allotted time.
    Therefore, i would in the first place not advise anyone to go on a life support system to extend the days of living.

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  2. I've never viewed masturbating in this way before! lol. I have never imagined sperm cells to have a soul so I don't believe that is similar to murder. If it came down to it I would help a loved one by taking the oxygen as they are being kept alive through synthetically... it's not natural. But if somebody asked me to give them a 'death cocktail' or take them to Switzerland to die I don't know what I'd do...

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  3. everything that lives is holy, life delights in life - william blake (atheist)

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