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April 17, 2009
It is certain that serious moral issues are attached to the term ‘euthanasia’. There is a deep rooted belief in most people that life is a god given gift and it is presumptuous on the part of a human being to throw it away. This motive may also be viewed as dangerously close to playing god. For instance, if the patient is in coma without having expressed any idea on the subject, who is to decide on actively terminating the person’s life? Even if the doctor is sincere and honest, the dilemma will remain at a deep moral level after all a doctor’s duty is surely to prolong life and not assist in shortening it. In certain developed countries such as UK, it has been considered legal to allow the life of a person to be taken “upon his/her explicit request”. Any law on euthanasia should, of course, have clear safeguards to preclude any possibility of unscrupulous elements exploiting the situation. The prime decision should come from the patient concerned and that too after long and deep thought. People who oppose euthanasia are blind to the tragedy and sense of human waste when a person is kept artificially alive, suspended between life and death. In such circumstances, one has to consider the meaning of life itself and not reject it as ‘immortal’. Euthanasia is a controversial subject and there is no unanimity about it.
