Should Euthanasia be legalized?

Introduction:
Euthanasia the term has its origin from Greek words Eu, which means good,
and Thanatosis, which means death together it means good death. The
other term, which is generally used for this, is Mercy Killing. It is defined as
intentionally and legally killing a person to release him or her of pain and
suffering.
In most of the cases where Euthanasia is carried out is at the request of the
victim if he is too-ill but it can also be administered on request of relatives,
friends or medics who deemed the illness to be untreatable and seeing the
pain and suffering of the victim can request a plea for euthanasia for the
person.
When we go through our history, we find various philosophers debating
about whether a person has right to end its life or not and if yes then what
will be those circumstances that will qualify to be legitimate reasons on
which he could end his or life. The debate touches down on an individuals
most fundamental interests and understandably evokes much passion.
Before we delve into the ethics of euthanasia we should have a brief look at
the history of euthanasia and how it has evolved over centuries.
The issue on Euthanasia has been around for as long as the history of
medicines. Ancient Greeks and Romans opined that a person who does not
want to be alive or if a person is incurable than there is no need to preserve
those lives and it was quite common for doctors to kill their patients. This
practice was challenged later in around 400 BC by a very prominent Greek
physician called Hippocrates who opined and took an oath that I will not
give my patients any harmful thing even if they request it. This oath later
became Hippocratic oath and became the norm for medical practitioners,
which is in practice from last 2300 years till today. This was a monumental
advancement in the history of medicine, which differentiated medical
practice from killing.
The topic was pretty much out of question in the Middle Ages and was
considered a sin so much so that suicide was termed a crime and the
punishment for that was rather severe. It was seventeenth and eighteenth
century when the topic gained some eye share but soon was shed into
anonymity. The practice was still considered illegal and criminal. It was in

1828 when formally the first law was framed deeming assisted suicide as
illegal. However there were certain states in America, which were trying to
get it passed at the state level but without much success. During the 1930s
the issue again gained some interest and euthanasia saw some major
support in US and England. There was probably the first recorded pro
movement for support of euthanasia in written history. However World War 2
changed this equation completely. Hitler and Nazis used the concept of
euthanasia and killed hundreds of thousands of people. The Nazis and Hitler
used gas chambers to exterminate captured Russians, Jews and others. This
incident provided a great dent to the movement of euthanasia as it many
supporters of euthanasia to non-supporters and the issue virtually died
during this period.
It was in 1980 that the movement again gained some momentum and an
international federation for supporting voluntary mercy killing was found
Hemlock Society. The society is believed to have more than 60000 registered
members.
Euthanasia continues to draw much attention and in the last two decades the
focus has shifted from political to legal arena, mainly in countries which
practices a common law legal tradition where cause lawyers has been taken
up on this issue. A number of cases have been presented before court on the
rights to euthanasia and legal circumstances in which the person can receive
assistance to die. In spite of the fact that these issues have only been able to
generate very modest successes they have been able to bring the issue
again into the forefront of public debate. This has helped in euthanasia been
legalized in a number of countries including Netherlands, Belgium,
Australias norther territory and in few states of US such as the US state of
Oregon. In fact Netherlands was the first country to legalize euthanasia.
However the debate on euthanasia remains as controversial as ancient times
today.
Euthanasia as described today as been divided into various subcategories.
Active and Passive Euthanasia
Active euthanasia is defined as process when the person directly and
deliberately causes the death to patient. It is brought through an act such as
dosage of legal injection etc. Passive euthanasia on the other hand is defined
as processes where they dont directly take the patients life but no supports
are provided and they allow the patient to die. It is brought by omission i.e.
withholding or withdrawing treatment.

Voluntary and Involuntary Euthanasia

Voluntary euthanasia is defined as the process when the euthanasia is
administered to the patient on his/her request. The patient is able to take
decision but primarily remains in vegetative state. Involuntary euthanasia on
the other side is defined as a state when the patient is unable to take
decision on his own or handicapped in making a meaningful decision and
some other person who could be his family or friend takes decision on his
behalf.
The topic raises some questions which needs to be understood before we
delve into it further:

Is it right morally to end a life if the person is undergoing severe pain

and suffering?
What are the parameters, which can vindicate Euthanasia?
Should we, as humans, possess rights to decide on life and death?

Methodology:
We have mainly considered two methods secondary research and primary
research.
Secondary Research Findings:
In this study, the cases and arguments related to Euthanasia has been
studied from 1870, the year when the euthanasia debate first started. Felix
Alder was the first American to propose for euthanasia in 1891 which was
followed by many others including Robert Ingersoll and Henry Hunt In 1906,
Henry Hunt with Anna Hall first tried to get his bill of legalizing euthanasia
but he failed. At about the same time, Ross Grocery also introduced a
proposal to permit euthanasia to the Lowa legislature. Sadly, his proposal
also failed. After 1906, the debate over legalizing euthanasia got receded in
public interest.
The first known case of euthanasia case is of King George V in Jan 1936,
where he was given a fatal dose of morphine and cocaine in order to hasten
his death. This event was kept under secret over 50 years. In 1940, killing of
severely disabled infants in Nazi Germany grabbed the attention worldwide
when BBC documented the whole thing and termed it as State sponsored

euthanasia. Parties to be consented for this euthanasia were Hitlers office,

parents and the Reich Committee.
In 1935, Euthanasia society of America was founded and in 1949 they
presented a petition for legalizing euthanasia to The New York State
Legislature. But again, as the earlier cases, it too failed.
But in 1976, New Jersey Court ruled that respirator could be removed from
coma patient in the case of 21-year-old Karen Ann Quinlan. This case was a
legal landmark in the case of euthanasia. In the same year in 1976,
California became the first state in the nation to allow euthanasia. By 1977,
eight states including Nevada and Texas had signed right to die bills into law.
Then again in 1987, California became the first major public body to approve
of physician assisted dying.
Dr. Jack Kevorbian also known as Dr. Death was involved in over 130 assisted
suicides, which started with assisting Janet Adkins in 1990. In June 1990,
Nancy Cruzans case again caught attention of the public when her family
got the consent of removing her live saving medical devices. The next
decade was very controversial as in many places including California; the law
favoring euthanasia was withdrawn. But again in 2005, Terry Schiavos
feeding tube was removed supporting euthanasia but that too after 7 years
of long court battle. In the next 10 years, many countries including South
Africa and Belgium passed the law for assisted suicide.
India too has witnessed many cases of petition for euthanasia including that
of Aruna Shanbaug who recently died of Pneumonia after getting the plea for
euthanasia rejected. The other cases of India included Dilip Machuas case
and Jeet Narayans plea of mercy killing his four sons; all the pleas being
rejected by the government.
The whole research till date has been done in this report taking in
consideration the data given by the Euthanasia Society of America.
According to a survey done by them, it came into light that more than 70%
people were in support of euthanasia. Also, in the last few years, many
countries have legalized euthanasia including India who in 2015 legalized
passive euthanasia after the case of Aruna Shanbaugs case.

NANCY CASE:

Nancy Cruzan lost control of her car one day in January 1983 in Missouri.
When the paramedics arrived, they were able to restore her breathing and
heartbeat and she was transported, unconscious, to hospital. She continued
to be fed through a surgically- implanted gastrostomy tube. After several
years, a court found that, although her respiration and circulation continued
unaided, she was oblivious to her surroundings except for reflexive responses
to sound and perhaps painful stimuli; her brain had degenerated,
irreversibly; she was a spastic quadriplegic; she suffered contraction of her
four extremities, with irreversible muscle and tendon damage; and had no
cognitive or reflex ability to swallow food or water or to maintain her
essential daily needs nor would she ever recover such an ability.

Primary Research Findings:

We contacted one person who was suffering of coma for last 10 years. He
met with an accident and for the last 10 years he has been in the hospital
under care. He was of age 52 and his family was financially stable. This was
the reason for his constant care in the hospital but his family was very much
sad for his condition. He has a son who works in an IT firm and a daughter
who is studying. His wife was a housewife. His brothers were taking care of
his family for the last 10 years.
For last 3 years his conditioned worsened because of less support from
doctors. Many doctors were suggesting stopping his medication. But family
members thought it was cruel. So they continued and because of which
financial condition of the family is not as good as it used to be.
Apart from financial stress the family members are just not happy with his
condition and they are suffering because of his suffering. They want closure
in his life and their own lives.
His wife was the very sad about his condition. She was so frustrated that she
said, I used to pray for his recovery during initial days. But now a days I
pray for his death.

Results
The patient who is in deep pain due to illness or any such circumstance and
is not responding positively to any medication is further rendered helpless to
stay in that position because of the existing law on euthanasia. This case
also holds ground for all those patients who are in coma for years. The family
members of the patient are in dilemma whether to liberate their loved ones
from the pain or to let them bear the agony till death.
Given the above situation if Government allows euthanasia, people can take
undue advantage of the same by finding the loopholes in the law. They will
devise method to exterminate their enemies using lethal drugs and get away
with the wrong doings by exploiting the loopholes.
The variables in this case should be based on the chances of recovery, the
extent of pain, doctors opinion and the ailing period of the patient. There will
always be gray matter in this subject but we need to make the process of
euthanasia to be scrutinized to the extent of satisfaction to both patient and
their family members.
Our suggestions for legalized system are as follows:

In case of brain death it is required to have the presence of a reliable

medical specialist

The specialist should be well experienced in the clinical diagnosis of

brain and brain stem death and the various implications of such
diagnosis

The team should comprise of two specialists with experience in

diagnosing brain death

One of the two doctors of the team should be a specialist in neurology,

neurosurgery or intensive care

Legal suggestions:

Law can also take into consideration the coma cases

For such cases suspension of medical treatment via preventing the

patient from his due medication has to be allowed

Thus, the physician can do this for the sake of the patients comfort
and the relief of his family