Is it possible to find the relief in the life which is full of pain and agony for those people who suffer from serious diseases and have only a little chance to get rid of their suffering? In his work, Garn LeBaron accentuates that “the way people deal with and respond to issues of life, ritual, and death serves to shape the nature of our society.
This is why society must attempt to decide what is right” (LeBaron). What is right when we speak about the problem of euthanasia? This controversial question is widely discussed by many scholars who emphasize two absolutely opposite visions of this ethical issue with inclining to the rejection of the euthanasia’s principles. However, it is not rationally to concentrate only on negative aspects of euthanasia because for many people it is the opportunity to cease their overwhelming sufferings.
If we analyze euthanasia as the human right to choose the death according to people’s will, it seems to have a lot of similarities with a suicide completed with the help of doctors. Is it ethically? People commit suicides when there are no more abilities to bear sufferings of different kinds. It is their right which depends only on their personal visions of their lives.
People can want to choose euthanasia when there are no more abilities to bear the pain or their life is only a morbid survival. Where is the difference? According to LeBaron, “the individual has certain rights guaranteed under the law and the Constitution that allow them to choose when they can die” and moreover, “individual liberty is a fundamental constitutional guarantee, and that the right to privacy protects the right of an individual to choose to die” (LeBaron).
Thus, if a man has different human rights which are protected and supported by the law, which can be associated with the peculiarities of health care system and medical treatment, which accentuate the person’s possibility to choose the life that he or she lives, this man can have the same right to choose the death as the chance to get rid of suffering. It can be more morally for our society than to observe other people’s agonies and to hear their appeals to relieve their torments.
There are also many aspects of the problem which are connected with the problems which the long medical treatment can cause to the patient and to his family. People must have the chance to choose the way they will be treated according to the real perspectives for their recovery.
Every day people suffer from unbearable pain and terrible conditions of their life, and they do not see the opportunities for changing the situation. The details of each case should be discussed separately, but the possibility to use euthanasia should exist in society because it can be the only way to act morally in relation to people who want to die.
Moreover, there are different kinds of euthanasia including active and passive methods of its realization. These methods should be chosen by the patient or by the members of his family according to his medical state. Doctors should not be considered as killers because of the usage of euthanasia.
It is just one of the aspects of their everyday work. Today, those people who cannot bear their sufferings anymore try to commit suicides, and those ones who cannot do the same because of their physical state only dream of it. Why is it impossible to give them such a chance?
If some methods of euthanasia are considered as too severe, there are different kinds of palliative treatment. Garn LeBaron states that “theologically and morally it is acceptable for a patient to choose palliative treatments that may result in death and for a physician to administer potentially lethal analgesia in the relief of pain” (LeBaron). Therefore, euthanasia which is hidden behind palliative treatments can be more satisfactory for society because of those slight methods which are used for it.
However, many opponents of euthanasia determine the ethical issue of the phenomenon with references to the religious aspect. They focus on the idea that God gives life to people, and it is only his right to allow their dying. Suicide is a sin, and euthanasia is a sin because it is a murder. Nevertheless, the religious aspect of the problem can have no sense for those people who do not share these religious theories. It is a personal right to believe or not, and it is a personal right to choose life or death.
The issue of euthanasia has a lot of aspects which are necessary to be discussed. The ethical aspect depends on the problem of human rights and the personal choice. Today our society is inclined to discuss the phenomenon of euthanasia as the immoral question which rejects the principles of ethics and religion.
However, if we look at the problem from the other side, it is possible to notice that the questions of morality and ethics will be connected with euthanasia as the social obligation to give the chance for relief to those people who suffer every day of their life.
Works Cited
LeBaron, Garn. n.d. The Ethics of Euthanasia. Web.