Euthanasia

By Deimante (Lithuania)

Euthanasia is the intentional ending of a patient's life by a physician, usually by lethal injection. There are many opinions about euthanasia. Some people think, that it should be banned, so many countries haven’t allowed euthanasia. But there are such countries like Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington where euthanasia is allowed.


In my opinion, euthanasia should be allowed in much more countries, because such little quantity of countries in the world cause many inconvenience. Firstly, if human being lives in Lithuania, where euthanasia is not allowed, and wants to intentionally kill himself, he can’t do that in Lithuania. So he has to go to, for example, Netherlands, and do it there because he wants it and can’t stand pain of his disease. It causes much inconvenience. Secondly, euthanasia is not done to whoever wants to. It is done basis physician’s advices and bioethical laws. It means that euthanasia is done for people who have serious diseases.

Moreover, human being has a right to choose if live for 2 months in pain and suffering or end his life calmly, with his family and physician. “In...cases where there are no dependants who might exert pressure one way or the other, the right of the individual to choose should be paramount” [“The Independent”, 2002 March].

However, many people think that only God has a right to end a life and the main idea of euthanasia is amoral. But right to life includes right to die and of course, it does not mean, that a doctor has right to kill a patient. A patient has right to choose how long he should live.

To sum up, I think that euthanasia should not be banned because human being has a right to life and death and there are laws how and why euthanasia should be done. Last, but not least, if euthanasia is banned in country where human being lives, it will cause many inconvenience and will cost for person very much.