5.1 responding to blog post about euthanasia

Even though I totally understand about the idea of being a vegetable, lying helpless on a hospital bed every day, I have some points to express: I personally believe it is not right to legalize euthanasia. Rising to the surface of discussion, were a variety of reasons all directed toward the benefit of euthanasia. Some argue that every individual has the right to die, that euthanasia should be acceptable when the patient is falling down the slippery slope of inevitable death and that voluntary euthanasia cannot become involuntary. All statements are based on a false foundation of idealistic principles and thoughts. Voluntary euthanasia (when the patient asks to die) has been found to be influenced by emotional and psychological elements of the suffering human and is not brought about based on the intensity of physical pain. Most terminally ill individuals, give up on life, fall into depression and dive deeper into a pit of hopelessness which as a result makes them request the choice of euthanasia. Legalizing euthanasia will make those patients feel even more vulnerable, as well as threatened. It would construct the idea that their lives are burdens blocking the progress of society and thus would make them request euthanasia for entirely wrong reasons.

Legalizing euthanasia would also mean that there would be an easier solution to end pain, for those who are poor and do not have enough money to support their families in hospitals. It would be looked upon as an easy and cheaper alternative, which would mean that doctors and government would benefit if someone chose the “treatment” of death. Research has indicated that poor families aren’t given access to the right means for an easier approach to relieve the pain of a victim. This would make more financially disabled people chose to embark on the downward road towards euthanasia. Most people also ask, “will safeguards prevent the abuse and the occurrence of involuntary euthanasia?” Dutch studies have indicated the exact opposite of what pro-activists choose to acknowledge. Data showed that during the year 1995 only “41% of euthanasia cases were recorded”, and based on the law every single case has to be reported. Such cases could be considered non-voluntary, and there were “one thousand cases in which life ending treatment was given without the request of the patient” (“Questions and Answers on Euthanasia” 5). Legalizing the use of euthanasia would not only enforce the needless and unethical deaths of millions (based on the confusion between physical and emotional pain). It will give doctors, physicians and the government financial benefits, leading to the rise of a corrupt system and to the deprivation of advantages for those who are desperately suffering.