Euthanasia
Do we really have the right to our own life?
Imagine a close relative of yours was slowly dying of cancer; every breath they took was just as agonising as the last. They are confined to their soiled beds and held prisoner of their own internal anguish, unable to move and with no recognised medication or drug capable to numb the agonising pain associated with death. The family member explains that they are happiest when they are sleeping, proceeding to ask you to end their torment. What would you do? If you assisted the individual in hastening their death, you would be accountable for their murder, subsequently serving a prison sentence for the murder of your relative. What the relative wants you to commit is Euthanasia. Euthanasia is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “the painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease or in an irreversible coma.”
Many people, like any sensitive topic, draw conclusions about Euthanasia from sources and facts that are either Pro-Euthanasia or from the sources that are against Euthanasia. So tonight ladies and gentlemen, I will discuss the positives and negatives of this controversial taboo from a non-biased perspective and draw my conclusions as an aid so you can make the impartial decision for yourselves whether we should have the right to control our own very existence.
As of 2011, active euthanasia is only legal in the three Benelux countries: the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. However topical the subject may be, it is still illegal in the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom, in 1987 a survey suggested that 72% of the survey respondents were in favour of legalised euthanasia. Given this statistic, one would assume euthanasia would be a legal choice but as we know, it’s not. So why is it illegal? The heated debate is drawn between the warring social, religious and political groups. These groups argue that the fundamental issue of Euthanasia is its sheer margin for abuse.
Imagine a close relative of yours was slowly dying of cancer; every breath they took was just as agonising as the last. They are confined to their soiled beds and held prisoner of their own internal anguish, unable to move and with no recognised medication or drug capable to numb the agonising pain associated with death. The family member explains that they are happiest when they are sleeping, proceeding to ask you to end their torment. What would you do? If you assisted the individual in hastening their death, you would be accountable for their murder, subsequently serving a prison sentence for the murder of your relative. What the relative wants you to commit is Euthanasia. Euthanasia is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “the painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease or in an irreversible coma.”
Many people, like any sensitive topic, draw conclusions about Euthanasia from sources and facts that are either Pro-Euthanasia or from the sources that are against Euthanasia. So tonight ladies and gentlemen, I will discuss the positives and negatives of this controversial taboo from a non-biased perspective and draw my conclusions as an aid so you can make the impartial decision for yourselves whether we should have the right to control our own very existence.
As of 2011, active euthanasia is only legal in the three Benelux countries: the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. However topical the subject may be, it is still illegal in the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom, in 1987 a survey suggested that 72% of the survey respondents were in favour of legalised euthanasia. Given this statistic, one would assume euthanasia would be a legal choice but as we know, it’s not. So why is it illegal? The heated debate is drawn between the warring social, religious and political groups. These groups argue that the fundamental issue of Euthanasia is its sheer margin for abuse.