Should India legalize active euthanasia through the method of lethal injection?
Should India legalize active euthanasia through the method of lethal injection?
Euthanasia is a practice of killing or ending the life of a person knowingly, to relieve him/her from a pain or suffering.
Lethal injection is the practice of injecting a person with a heavy dose of drugs which ultimately causes death.
Euthanasia can be categorized into active and passive. Active euthanasia involves the usage of lethal substance to kill a person and it is the most controversial means. Passive euthanasia is the refusal of giving the basic treatment such as antibiotics or food for survival.
India follows the concept of passive euthanasia in extreme cases.
Recently, in the case of Aruna Shanbaug, the court dismissed the plea of giving the active euthanasia. Aruna was a nurse who was sexually assaulted by a ward boy in 1973 in a Mumbai hospital. She was in a vegetative mode since past 37 years till her death in 2015. On 17 December, 2010, Pinki Virani (her friend) submitted a plea to end Aruna's life. The court turned down the plea on 7 March, 2011 and gave the permission for passive euthanasia.
Countries which have legalized active euthanasia are – Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg.
Yes – It can put an end to the pain
- Relief from pain – Most of the patients in India are suffering from a heavy pain in spite of receiving the proper treatment. In such cases, active euthanasia can be helpful as it would relieve the patients from the pain that they are suffering.
- Right to choose – Every individual has the right to choose whether to live further or not ,in cases of highly unbearable pain caused due to a disease etc. It does not make any sense if a person lives and continues to suffer the unbearable pain.
- Saves the family – By giving active euthanasia to a person through the means of lethal injection, would save the patient as well as their family from the pain. People would never like to see their loved ones suffering in an extreme stage. At times, all the treatments provided to a person fail continuously and it does not help the patient to recover. In such cases active euthanasia can also save the money of the family.
- Donation of organs – In cases of providing active euthanasia, the organs of the deceased patients can be contributed and used for a good purpose. It would be helpful for the other patients who can get rid of a problem with an organ transplantation.
- First do no Harm – The quote “First Do No Harm” is a summary of an ancient code which was designed to guide the doctors to carry out their action. It also means that do not keep any patient artificially alive, if death is preferable. At times, when the patient is going through an intense pain, our society contributes to the cruelty by keeping him alive.
- Improves quality of life – Usually, active euthanasia is carried out with the permission of the patient or their family. Thus, the patient knows that he has only limited time in his hand. This knowledge can help the patient to improve the quality of his life in his remaining days.
No – Active euthanasia should not be legalized in India.
- Patient's opinion – Most of the times, the patient would like to live his/her life further. But, they might be forced to take a decision to end the life by their family etc. If active euthanasia is legalized in India, such incidents would occur very often. The doctors should take the consent of the patients before initiating the practice of active euthanasia on them.
- Killing in the name of euthanasia – India is a country where the issues related to corruption, theft, illegal trading of organ etc are common. Hence, active euthanasia should not be legalized in India as it would mislead the doctors and a lot of killings would be carried out in hospitals in the name of euthanasia.
- Religious – According to Bible, life is the most basic gift of God. Every individual has a moral duty to take care of their own life and health and to desire help from others. One should not intend to cause one's own death or death of an innocent victim.
- Shortens life – Sometimes, patients might be on the verge of recovery. Due to heavy misunderstanding, doctors and the families of the patient may move towards active euthanasia to end the suffering. In such cases, usually, the level of patience is very low. Such irresponsible mistakes can lead to the death of a person and it would shorten his life.
Conclusion
The life of each and every individual in this world is extremely important. The government should think multiple times before arriving at a decision regarding the implementation of active euthanasia. We should always remember, once a soul is gone, its gone for ever.
If at all we want to explore this option, it should be carried out with a strict set of rules and regulations. In the past of few months, it has been noticed that certain people in our country stand above the law and have the power to influence the judiciary judgments. In such a case, legalizing the active euthanasia would be a foolish idea as people can commit crime and wash their hands off easily.
Discussion
- RE: Should India legalize active euthanasia through the method of lethal injection? -manohar (05/27/15)
- in my opinion it should be legalized with more alertness so that nobody can misuse this..
when a pers lives in unlimited pain that time he is not burden to society but he is burden on himself only.. that time he cant do things according to his choice. what feelings will come that time and this is not only a onetime process bcoz this is his daily routine. to free by such type of sorrow active euthanasia is the better idea but the same be done in proper strict rules.
- RE: Should India legalize active euthanasia through the method of lethal injection? -Deep Modi (05/27/15)
- As per my opinion,Active euthanasia should be legal in country like INDIA because we have most of the population middle class or lower middle class.so,we just can't afford to make someone we love on artificial living system.
if we think economically,keeping our emotions aside only then this is possible.
sorry for offence.
