Sue Rodriguez, a woman in her early thirties, was suffering from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig’s disease. It is a fatal, neurodegenerative disease that causes the nerve cells in the central nervous system, that control voluntary muscle movement, to degenerate. She knew that gradually her muscles would weaken so much that soon they would become totally dysfunctional. In the last stage the muscles would contract, leading to atrophy, and she would lose all control over voluntary movement. And finally, Sue knew, she would choke to death. With the contemporary laws presiding over the course of our lives, and death as well, the options she had weren’t many. And the few available to her were so bleak that they would have made her life a living hell. She didn’t want to live with that pain, she didn’t want such an agonising death. She wanted a peaceful death, and therefore requested the courts to allow her to choose the moment of her death. In other words, she requested for euthanasia, a request turned down by the courts.
So what is the apt thing to do in such a case, when you know the end is near? Live the last days of one’s life with the fear of pain and suffering with each breath or choose the time of death and die peacefully? Though in the above case Sue was eventually helped by a doctor who contravened the law and helped her die according to her wishes, and thus saved her of the nightmare she was going through, not everybody is as ‘lucky’! Some forms of euthanasia, from the Greek words eu (good) and thanatos (death), are legal in places like Belgium, Oregon, Washington, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Thailand etc. Recently Oregon became the only state in America to have the Death with Dignity Act that allows physician-assisted suicide. Now Washington State will also allow terminally ill patients, with less than six months to live, to ask the doctor for a life-ending prescription. According to the law the patient must be 18 years of age, declared competent and a resident of Washington State. Moreover, two doctors must certify that the patient has less than six months to live; and the patient in question must make two verbal requests, 15 days apart, and thereafter make a written request witnessed by two people.
Following enactment of this law, Barbara McKay, who is in the last stage of ovarian cancer, wants to take charge over when and how she dies, and doesn’t want to burden her family because of her illness. But could such a law find a place in India?
“It is not required” shoots Dr. PK Das, Sr. Consultant, Oncology Department at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, “Here, when we see that the outcome is absolutely bleak we discuss it with the family members and they understand it. If the patient is in terminal condition and on the ventilator, we make similar arrangements at his home so that he can die peacefully at home. We don’t document all this legally, but follow the wish of the patient and the family members off the record. In foreign countries one major issue is that all the health-related expenses are borne by the state, and if somebody is critically ill or has cancer the state is required to shell out thousands of dollars every day. But this problem doesn’t arise in our country. Therefore it’s a bigger issue in the western countries and they want a legal system binding it”. But perhaps, this is life, where neither can we choose our time and place of birth nor that of our death! Legalities aside, whether a person has the right to die the way he wants to, if he can’t live the way he ought to, is a question that still hasn’t died the ‘good death’ yet
For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009
So what is the apt thing to do in such a case, when you know the end is near? Live the last days of one’s life with the fear of pain and suffering with each breath or choose the time of death and die peacefully? Though in the above case Sue was eventually helped by a doctor who contravened the law and helped her die according to her wishes, and thus saved her of the nightmare she was going through, not everybody is as ‘lucky’! Some forms of euthanasia, from the Greek words eu (good) and thanatos (death), are legal in places like Belgium, Oregon, Washington, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Thailand etc. Recently Oregon became the only state in America to have the Death with Dignity Act that allows physician-assisted suicide. Now Washington State will also allow terminally ill patients, with less than six months to live, to ask the doctor for a life-ending prescription. According to the law the patient must be 18 years of age, declared competent and a resident of Washington State. Moreover, two doctors must certify that the patient has less than six months to live; and the patient in question must make two verbal requests, 15 days apart, and thereafter make a written request witnessed by two people.
Following enactment of this law, Barbara McKay, who is in the last stage of ovarian cancer, wants to take charge over when and how she dies, and doesn’t want to burden her family because of her illness. But could such a law find a place in India?
“It is not required” shoots Dr. PK Das, Sr. Consultant, Oncology Department at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, “Here, when we see that the outcome is absolutely bleak we discuss it with the family members and they understand it. If the patient is in terminal condition and on the ventilator, we make similar arrangements at his home so that he can die peacefully at home. We don’t document all this legally, but follow the wish of the patient and the family members off the record. In foreign countries one major issue is that all the health-related expenses are borne by the state, and if somebody is critically ill or has cancer the state is required to shell out thousands of dollars every day. But this problem doesn’t arise in our country. Therefore it’s a bigger issue in the western countries and they want a legal system binding it”. But perhaps, this is life, where neither can we choose our time and place of birth nor that of our death! Legalities aside, whether a person has the right to die the way he wants to, if he can’t live the way he ought to, is a question that still hasn’t died the ‘good death’ yet
For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009
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