Sunday, February 19, 2006
Merciful death?
On December 12th of last year England witnessed a watershed judicial decision: former SAS soldier Andrew Wragg was cleared of all charges by the courts after having smothered his terminally-ill son with a pillow. The judge commented that there was “nothing to be gained” from sending Wragg to jail.
Just over a month later, on January 25th, the British doctor Anne Turner travelled to Switzerland in order to kill herself in a hospital in Zurich, because she had been diagnosed with supranuclear palsy, a degenerative brain disease. Turner made her case very public in order to lobby for the need to allow doctor-assisted death in the UK.
The same day the Voluntary Euthanasia society changed its name in this country, and now operates as “Dignity in Dying”. Deborah Annetts, its chief executive officer, is pushing for legal reform in order to legalise what she thinks are about 3000 cases a year when doctors intervene in the UK to prematurely end the life of a terminally-ill patient.
One gets the feeling that a tidal wave has just hit the shores of this country, washing away common sense, laws of the land, and venerable medical practice. If it is not murder to end the life of my terminally-ill boy, what about my old mother who just broke her hip, or my uncle who is in a wheelchair, or my brother who has Down syndrome? And what has become of the Hippocratic oath by which doctors promise “not give a drug that is deadly to anyone if asked”, if doctors themselves incite their colleagues to administer to them barbiturate cocktails? And why is it suddenly called dignity when we end our lives, but not if we endure suffering, illness and death with courage and hope?
In the movie “Awakenings” (based on a true story) Robin Williams plays a doctor who is instrumental in helping chronically-ill neurology patients to come out of their seeming slumber and for a short period to enjoy “normal life”. For the few weeks that these patients are able to get out of their wheelchairs, to walk around and to communicate normally, all the doctors and relatives realize that even in their slumber these patients were thinking and feeling, and any care given to them was appreciated. However short this awakening was, it taught the doctors and nurses that what had seemed as lives not worth living were fully and truly human lives.
The more the euthanasia discussion progresses the clearer it becomes that any decision to end a human life is quite arbitrary. Who can judge whose quality of life is sufficient for somebody to be kept alive? And who amongst us is safe if it is up to fellow human beings to decide who “makes the cut” and who does not. Jews, Muslims and Christians are united in the view that human life is sacred: man did not give it, and man cannot take it away. Only God, who is the author of all human life, can give and take life. And whatever we call human life, meaning the period between birth and death, is only a fraction of the life God intends for every man and woman, it is only a preparation for an eternity which all human beings are meant to spend with God. Therefore it is important how we go through this period here on earth, however easy or difficult it is; and only after death will we understand why our earthly lives turned out the way they did. So let us help our fellow men live their lives with dignity, and not to end them early.
Just over a month later, on January 25th, the British doctor Anne Turner travelled to Switzerland in order to kill herself in a hospital in Zurich, because she had been diagnosed with supranuclear palsy, a degenerative brain disease. Turner made her case very public in order to lobby for the need to allow doctor-assisted death in the UK.
The same day the Voluntary Euthanasia society changed its name in this country, and now operates as “Dignity in Dying”. Deborah Annetts, its chief executive officer, is pushing for legal reform in order to legalise what she thinks are about 3000 cases a year when doctors intervene in the UK to prematurely end the life of a terminally-ill patient.
One gets the feeling that a tidal wave has just hit the shores of this country, washing away common sense, laws of the land, and venerable medical practice. If it is not murder to end the life of my terminally-ill boy, what about my old mother who just broke her hip, or my uncle who is in a wheelchair, or my brother who has Down syndrome? And what has become of the Hippocratic oath by which doctors promise “not give a drug that is deadly to anyone if asked”, if doctors themselves incite their colleagues to administer to them barbiturate cocktails? And why is it suddenly called dignity when we end our lives, but not if we endure suffering, illness and death with courage and hope?
In the movie “Awakenings” (based on a true story) Robin Williams plays a doctor who is instrumental in helping chronically-ill neurology patients to come out of their seeming slumber and for a short period to enjoy “normal life”. For the few weeks that these patients are able to get out of their wheelchairs, to walk around and to communicate normally, all the doctors and relatives realize that even in their slumber these patients were thinking and feeling, and any care given to them was appreciated. However short this awakening was, it taught the doctors and nurses that what had seemed as lives not worth living were fully and truly human lives.
The more the euthanasia discussion progresses the clearer it becomes that any decision to end a human life is quite arbitrary. Who can judge whose quality of life is sufficient for somebody to be kept alive? And who amongst us is safe if it is up to fellow human beings to decide who “makes the cut” and who does not. Jews, Muslims and Christians are united in the view that human life is sacred: man did not give it, and man cannot take it away. Only God, who is the author of all human life, can give and take life. And whatever we call human life, meaning the period between birth and death, is only a fraction of the life God intends for every man and woman, it is only a preparation for an eternity which all human beings are meant to spend with God. Therefore it is important how we go through this period here on earth, however easy or difficult it is; and only after death will we understand why our earthly lives turned out the way they did. So let us help our fellow men live their lives with dignity, and not to end them early.
# posted by tino @ Sunday, February 19, 2006 
