EUTHANASIA :LET THE SUFFERINGS STOP
Last night while
preparing for my civil services examination I stumbled upon the case of Aruna
Shanbaug.On 7th march,2011 the Supreme Court had turned down her
plea of euthanasia while opening a window for passive euthanasia in future.This
has put the society at quandary.Soon my young,rational mind was at war with
itself- SHOULD WE HAVE A RIGHT TO DIE?Or nature alone has the right to decide
it?The eerie silence of the sleepy hostel and the pleasant Chennai breeze did
little to calm me down.
EUTHANASIA is defined as the
voluntary intervention undertaken to end the life of a terminally ill person to
reduce his sufferings and give him a peaceful death.Euthanasia itself is of 2 types- Active ;where some lethal medicine is used by the physician to end
the life of the patient and Passive;where the life support system of a
hopeless patient is withdrawn.I thought by myself ;on what grounds can we
justify a doctor killing his own patient even with a noble objective?The Hippocrates Law states that-“TO PLEASE NO ONE SHALL I PRESCRIBE A LETHAL DRUG NOR
GIVE ADVISE WHICH MAY CAUSE HIS DEATH”.Indeed isn’t taking other’s life in
any circumstances a heinous crime ?In an instant my alter-ego shouted back at
me.”Hey what if the person is not fortunate enough to be able to rationalize
and think like you do?What if he is unable to visualize the beauty of nature
like you?What if he has permanently lost the ability of leading a healthy life and
has no more expectations from life?”
Aruna Shanbaug
was a lively young girl working as a nurse and dreamt of a colourful life like any one of us.She was
raped and strangled by a ward-boy leading her to be a virtually dead person or
in a “persistent negative state” in medical terms.She is unable to smell,see or
express anything.In short she shows no sign of a living person.In such a heart
rendering case is it befitting to keep her alive and let her suffer when her
own closed ones have plead for her peaceful death?Had Aruna been in a state of expressing
herself she would have begged for the same.
There is a limit
to human suffering especially when there is no ray of hope at the end of the
tunnel.Quality of life is as important as life itself.A terminally ill cancer
patient can be advised to stop taking
further sessions of chemotherapy or a hopeless kidney patient can be put
off from a dialysis treatment.In no case it would be a crime against humanity
as the patient has been given a peaceful death rather than a few more years of
suffering resulting in the same cause.
I would further
like to draw the attention of the readers to the case of Chantel Sabire,a
French woman who suffered from a rare form of cancer.She lost her sense of
sight,taste and smell.Refusing to live with the curse she appealed for her
“mercy-killing”.Rejected by the court she killed herself stating-“one should not allow an animal to go through what I
have endured”.These are the dangerous precedents
where one has no other option but to take the nature in their own hands;to play
god by themselves.The case of Chantel Sabire has sparked a debate in Europe and
various countries are going in the way of legalizing euthanasia to stop such
pathetic incidents in future.
It is ironic that a vibrant democracy like
India has no provision for it in the constitution.There are concerns that a law
legalizing euthanasia would be grossly misused and would result in a moral
degradation of the society.But isn’t it the case with any other law?A strong
safeguard would ensure that only those people who has no hope of recovery be
allowed to exercise the RIGHT TO DIE option.A national consensus on this
sensitive issue should be organized and a law enacted in the parliament very
soon.The case of Aruna Shanbaug should act as an eye opener for us.
Let’s hope in the
coming days we would act more mature,flexible ,tolerant and try to look at the
issue through the eyes of those who endures hopeless,unimaginable sufferings ,because
death is never the first choice and people opt for this because there is no
other path to take.
“DEATH IS THE LIBERATOR
FOR HIM WHOM FREEDOM CANNOT RELEASE,THE PHYSICIAN FOR HIM WHOM MEDICINE CANNOT
CURE AND COMFORTER FOR HIM WHOM TIME CANNOT CONSOLE.”
*varying
opinions are always welcome
