Euthanasia must be allowed for people who are in the final stages of their terminal

illnessess.
Euthanasia is the method of ending one's life in a painless manner.

Picture this, you are staring in a blank wall from your hospital bed. Seconds feels
like hours, and another hour feels like an eternity away. Your latter stage of
liver cancer renders you inevitable to death. A second opinion of another doctor is
also no help, since he has given u an ultimatum of 4 to 6 months. Every movement is
a strike in the gut, every food u eat only adds up to what u will throw up later
on and every breathe u take u wish were your last. i hope none of us knows someone
who suffers this condition. but somewhere along the suites of st lukes medical
center and along the wards of Philippine General Hospital, someone suffers a
similar fate.

Euthanasia is a taboo topic in the Philippines since we are a religious country.

The moment euthanasia comes up, we dismiss it very quickly. But because of this, we
never get the chance to learn the advantages and reasons of allowing euthanasia.

Everyone has a right to a good death, therefore a good death must not be denied to
those who want one.
Nobody thinks of their death and desires it to be extremely painful or horrible.
Rational human beings desire a good, dignified end to an ideally long and fruitful
life. Circumstance, like luck, may not always be in your favor. It may not even be
a terminal disease, which is so frequently used in pro-euthanasia arguments. It can
be as savage as a freak accident or as simple as falling down the stairs to put you
in a world of excruciating pain. While this is never to be wished on anyone, for
those that have had the misfortune of being diagnosed with a terminal or painfully
debilitating disease must have a choice out of it. Do we, who so desire a good
death, have the right to judge others’ state when we know nothing of it? Do we have
the right to compare their experiences day by day, having experienced none of them,
and say that they don’t deserve to die with dignity, the way they want to die? The
answer is of course, no, we have no right to deny them the dignified death that we
ourselves naturally desire. To do so would be selfish and we would effectively be
imposing our own desires on that person, thereby restricting their freedom to self-
determine even if it is in the most basic sense.

Also, the Hippocratic oath supports euthanasia. The very oath every doctor pledges
to. Specifically in the line "Most especially must I tread with care in matters of
life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be
within my power to take a life". In cases where it is a choice between intense,
unimaginable suffering or death, the physician might do more harm to the patient by
not allowing them to die. Breaking their oath of not harming their patients.

In economical level, euthanasia saves money and resources. The number of beds and
doctors in every hospital are limited. it is a huge waste if we use those resources
to lenghten the lives of the lost cause rather than saving the lives of the curable
ones.

Of course, in allowing euthanasia, a strict safeguards and rules must be observed

so that abuses and protection of the vulnerable can be addressed by ensuring that
certain objectives are met prior to allowing a terminally ill individual from
exercising his right to die with dignity. We can pattern a potential bill to the
Oregon approach. In the first three years, only 2 people a month used this to end
their pain. This was partly because of the severe conditions that had to be
satisfied before a request for euthanasia.

-patient must be aged over 18

-patient must make 2 oral and 1 written request for euthanasia
-there must be at least 15 days between the first and the last request
-patient must be terminally ill with a life expectancy of less than 6 months
-this prognosis must be confirmed by a second consultant physician
-both doctors must confirm that the patient is capable of making this decision
-both doctors must confirm that the patient does not have medical condition that
impairs their judgement
-patient must self-administer the lethal medication

This sums up my arguments, our second speaker will give further advantages and
reasons for allowing euthanasia later on.