The right to die
Euthanasia or mercy killing continues to be a debatable issue in most countries. In India, the so-called human rights and medical associations raise their hackles whenever the issue crops up. No one has the right to decide when a person becomes totally unfit to leave, they say, with their holier than thou attitudes. As long as their is life, there is hope for survival, etc.
So we have a long bed-ridden, vegetating Aruna Shanbaug kept alive just to suit the opinions of these experts. She has no consciousness, can't even do the basic functions, except breathing, but she has not been granted mercy death. I am sure there must be countless patients like her, brain dead, limb dead, mere vegetables just kept alive on the ventilator, by money squeezing doctors and hospitals.
It is sad that the voices against euthanasia choose to harp only on the right to live, not live with dignity. I have seen my father suffer at the hands of unscrupulous doctors, his misery being prolonged beyond tolerance or humanity. He was reduced by dementia and physical ailments, to being a mere shadow of his former self. When he breathed his last, it was after endlessly undergoing experimental treatment at the hands of one doctor after another. We used to be so moved by his suffering, that when the actual end came, we were actually relieved. Still I cannot forgive the doctors for reducing my father to such indignity and humiliation. It was good that he had lost the ability to react and just bore the suffering without a word. But did he deserve it?
I urge all sensible, sane people to speak for the right of all people, particularly above a certain age, to choose when and how to die. When the government cannot ensure a life of dignity, it has no right to stand in the way of dignity in death. And now that there is so much liberality emerging in other areas like gay rights and upholding the rights of special groups, why the rigidity in allowing the right to die to terminally ill and other chronic suffering patients?
So we have a long bed-ridden, vegetating Aruna Shanbaug kept alive just to suit the opinions of these experts. She has no consciousness, can't even do the basic functions, except breathing, but she has not been granted mercy death. I am sure there must be countless patients like her, brain dead, limb dead, mere vegetables just kept alive on the ventilator, by money squeezing doctors and hospitals.
Of what use is such life and for whom? The patient has long ceased to live, is just existing with external aid. How long do you want to prolong the misery of the patient and that of the relations? Doesn't everyone deserve to live and die with dignity? Can't he/she decide or assent to cease to exist peacefully?
It is sad that the voices against euthanasia choose to harp only on the right to live, not live with dignity. I have seen my father suffer at the hands of unscrupulous doctors, his misery being prolonged beyond tolerance or humanity. He was reduced by dementia and physical ailments, to being a mere shadow of his former self. When he breathed his last, it was after endlessly undergoing experimental treatment at the hands of one doctor after another. We used to be so moved by his suffering, that when the actual end came, we were actually relieved. Still I cannot forgive the doctors for reducing my father to such indignity and humiliation. It was good that he had lost the ability to react and just bore the suffering without a word. But did he deserve it?
I urge all sensible, sane people to speak for the right of all people, particularly above a certain age, to choose when and how to die. When the government cannot ensure a life of dignity, it has no right to stand in the way of dignity in death. And now that there is so much liberality emerging in other areas like gay rights and upholding the rights of special groups, why the rigidity in allowing the right to die to terminally ill and other chronic suffering patients?
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