Murder? (Euthanasia)

Member Name: weeonelass

Product:	Euthanasia
Date:	09/11/01 (301 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: none

Disadvantages: guilt

Euthanasia (easy death) is the painless killing of a patient who is suffering from an incurable and painful disease or irreversable coma.

How far do we take this definition? Do we have the right to decide who lives and who dies?

One part of me thinks that we should not take a life, whatever the circumstances. The other part of me thinks that there are lots of grey areas.

At the momnet there is a case where a woman dying of motor neuron disease ir requesting that she be helped to die by her husband. She relies on her husnabd for total care asshe is paralysed from the neck down. She cannot commit suicide herself. I think she should be allowed to die with dignity and to stop her suffering. The trouble is that the nessege it sends out to the rest of patients in similar circumstances is that it is ok. Relatives of people who have critical illnesses where there are no cures are being sent a signal that it is ok to bump them off.

Sucide is a common occurance in the world unfortunatly. But is it not murder for someone else to aid a death? What we do not think about is that euthanasia already occurs everyday in our hospitals. People in comas have their life support machines switched off because they are pysically and mentally beyond recovery. Also some cancer patients actually die from the amount of drugs in there body rather than the disease itself.

With both my grand parents my family decided that they should no longer live but in two different ways.
My gran had a heart operation which went wrong. Her heart began to bleed and stopped. She was put on all kinds of machines to breath for her and regulate her heart. But then all her organs began to fail and she was basically dead and her heart was kept going by the machines. After three days like this the doctors wanted to discuss her machines being switched off. At first we said no. But she was beyond recovery and she began to have internal bleeding because h
er body was not functioning properly. So the decision was made. Although it was not a straight forward yes or no. She had to be examined by three doctors and needed family consent also.

My grandad had a form a dementcia and ended up in nursing home. His brain was losing cells in clusters every day. In the end he lay in bed for months. My family signed a form to say that if he develpoed an illness he would not be given treatment to cure him, only painkillers. He died of a chest infection because they did not give him antibiotics.

Now my Gran's case I can understand. Yes pretty clear cut, beyond recovery. I have no guilt or resentment at all.

My grandad on the other hand I cannot agree with. I know he had a poor quality of life and probably suffered a loss of dignity and pride. But I think it is wrong for him not to be given treatment for this easily treatable disease so that his life cannot be prolonged. I did not want him to suffer but I did not want to be responsible for making the decision for him to die. I do feel guilty and resent the fact that his life was taken from us when it could have been prolonged. Some days I think yes it was best for him. But then other days I want him here with me.

I think that every case is so very different and all aspects need to be considered in every case. I also feel for the others who have to make these difficult desicions and then live with them for the rest of their lives.

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