Today while reading through the news paper, I glanced over this topic; Aruna Ramachandra Shanbaug a victim of Sexual assault by wardboy, who is currently in the state of comma and has been so for the past 37 years – Pinki Virani, a friend to Aruna had requested the court to permit active euthanasia on the patient as she is currently surviving on medical equipments. The incident is elaborately described at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aruna_Shanbaug
Considering this special case, court has permitted an assited suicide or passive euthanasia which involved cutting off food, medicines and withdrawing medical aids. Although the government of India has voted against this and opposes the rule. There is a large space in this rule which could be utillized by people to proceed with these killings for wealth, this iswhat the claim goes from the goverment. So the permissions will be required for the process each time there is a plead, and the permissions should be granted by respective courts.
Oregon, Washington, Montana, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg are the only jurisdictions around the world where Euthanasia is legal and almost every other country is against this concept. The obvious reason is the medical ethics and the oath doctors take to protect life to the limit they can.
The patients council quotes that
“Oregon and Washington passed laws and Montana’s Supreme Court determined that assisted suicide is a medical treatment.(1) The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg permit both euthanasia and assisted suicide. Although euthanasia and assisted suicide are illegal in Switzerland, assisted suicide is penalized only if it is carried out “from selfish motives.”(2)”
so basically the concept is too complicated to be laid down flat and define rules.
What is Euthanasia?
Euthanasia is an act in which a third party is involved in death of a patient, this involves giving lethal medicines or suffocating the person using medical equipments, this is considered crime in all countries except the one’s mentioned above.
Another option available is known as assisted suicide, which is when the patient is involved in triggering the cause of death and the doctors assist in the process by setting up the scenario or equipments needed for suicide. This again conflicts with IPC ( Indian Penal Code ) 309 article which considers suicide as a crime. But again, the patients will is what matters.
Do we need Euthanasia?
On a normal ground every citizen will oppose this rule, but for patients who are sufferring from extreme pain and where the cure is at infinity, it is always best to releive them from pain. No government or people can ask a person to suffer. So if the option is advisable for the patients who live their life on machines, suffer extreme pain and where the medical cure is impossible. The patient has every right to plea for a assisted suicide. But again this should be done under specified guidelines and I feel court should be involved to decide whether the permissions should be granted. The shear reason to prevent misuse of such an option to cheat a person from his wealth or similar. In a country where every law is being bend down for the use of criminals this will be essential.
This is a hard thought, I dont know if I have arrived at a conclusion yet, but the question still holds whether you wish your loved ones to suicide in front of you or will you want them to live until god decides ?
Read more: http://socyberty.com/issues/euthanasia-is-this-mercy/#ixzz1GHw8boqy
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