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While it is true that we have no control over our births,
at least we
ought to have control over our deaths. How can we claim to be
free people if someone else's morals and standards govern the
way we die?
Voluntary euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide for
an adult
who is in a rational state of mind, whose terminal suffering
happens to be unbearable despite the best medical efforts, is
an idea whose time has come. I'll explain why.
We die differently today from our forebears. In this
century,
medicine has made tremendous strides towards keeping us healthy
and living longer, for which we are all grateful. But modern
medicine has not entirely solved the problem of terminal pain,
and it certainly never will be able to answer the very personal
question of an individual person's quality of life.
Some people can stand more pain than others. Some patients
in
their dying days suffer distressing symptoms, like loss of bowel
control, haemorraging, bedsores, permanent hiccups and so forth.
So psychic pain is added to rest of the problems.
Take note that I have liberally used the word 'some'.
Most people die quickly, peacefully, and painlessly. Of that
there is no doubt.
Physician-assisted suicide is needed for very few dying patients
-
probably two percent or less of total deaths. But, two points:
1. You or I could be in that two percent; 2. If we're not included,
then we should have the decency to speak up for those who unluckily
are.
As I said, we die differently nowadays. There is the scourge
of
AIDS, which in some cases is a terrible death. More of us die
of
degenerative diseases like A L S (motor neuron disease), Parkinson's,
Multiple Sclerosis, Alzeheimer's Disease, and Osteoporosis. These
wasting diseases take years to run their course - sometimes 10
to 15. Our grandparents knew very little of such diseases because
they died earlier.
Two out of every five of us is going to die from a degenerative
disease.
Knowledge gives choice
At my present age of 69, I can remember when as a young
man we
took the word of doctors and nurses as gospel. They knew better.
We had almost no medical informational sources. But you've
probably noticed that things are different nowadays.
Television and radio programs graphically describe health
matters; books and magazines on medical and psychological affairs
are big sellers; and non-medical persons can attend conferences
and workshops about their special subject.
With the empowerment of better knowledge, we nowadays make
more decisions for ourselves. Of course, working intelligently
with our medical advisors to come to the best decision for our
case remains important. But we live in a more autonomous age;
gone are the days when the doctor 'played God'.
Some terminal pain is managed well, but the medical literature
is
full of examples where it is not. Sometimes it is medical ignorance
through sloppy training, occasionally carelessness due to overwork,
and in a few cases indifference by second-rate doctors. There
are rare instances where a request for physician-assisted suicide
is justified in being made because of intractable pain, and that's
why an appropriate law is necessary.
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