Assisted suicide or euthanasia; It’s not legalizing what's illegal?
Legislators have always played well with words, even with regard to death: suicide, assisted suicide, voluntary termination of life, euthanasia, etc. the most commonly used terms are: assisted suicide and euthanasia. Is this distinction simply semantic or does it cover a real difference of philosophy?
Several countries have already legalized assisted suicide and / or euthanasia: Switzerland, Belgium or the Netherlands, some US states, etc. Thus this practice is tolerated in these countries; the concerned must motivate his request, sometimes in front of a psychologist, and have all his discernment to obtain the lethal product. Does the law that decides to come to this world, so that the legislation gives its opinion on the end of our life?
Doctors are still much more trained to heal and save than to help or assist a person wanting to commit suicide! Against the oath of Hippocrates, which is at the origin of the medical ethics; against what is unforgivable by all the monotheistic religions or the majority of the other religions, which existed always on the ground; and against the logic which prevents us to take or confiscate what does not belong to us ... Does not the doctor become the servant of death?
In Switzerland, for example, the number of assisted suicides is going up, in 2017, 286 people resorted to assisted suicide in French-speaking Switzerland, an increase of 32.5% over the previous year. Has the doctor become a serial killer?
Who can guarantee that the patient's state of health is irreversible?
Who can guarantee that the person desiring to commit suicide is able (psychological and mental aptitude) to make such a decision?
Thank you for your answer Ana Fructuoso, what do you think about the legalization of assisted suicide in these countries?
Philosophically speaking; legalizing an act is not enough, the problem that always arises in this case is the ethics of this act.
If assisted suicide or euthanasia are legalized in some countries, this is not the case for the majority of them, since putting an end to life is an act rejected by all monotheistic religions and the majority of other religions. So it is the religions that have always been on earth rejecting this act, why now we want to justify the unjustifiable?
Completely agree with you professor hamaizia as for the opinion of the majority of religions on suicide on all these forms. If the religion which is on earth since always judges that this act is inadmissible and a sin for that which orders or carries out, therefore why we justify the unjustifiable.
You asked a good question: Has the doctor become a serial killer?
A doctor is trained to give life, alleviate suffering, improve the health of individuals, etc. Assisted suicide thus makes the doctor a killing machine, despite the fact that he is under Hippocratic oath to save life instead of taking the life of people in distress.
Okay, philosophically speaking it's true, the doctor is under oath throughout his professional life to take care of life. But can you see that they have special cases where the patient is terminally ill and that he does not hope to be alive to suffer more?
Euthanasia and assisted suicide. Euthanasia is the act of deliberately ending a person's life to relieve suffering. ... Assisted suicide is the act of deliberately assisting or encouraging another person to kill themselves....(www.nhs.uk › conditions › euthanasia-and-assisted-suicide)
Thank you Professor Gayan Nayanajith for this answer. After this epistimological distinction, we should work out legal alternatives together. What are these requests?
We can consider a doctor who attends a suicide without helping, worse still, he helps the person who wants to commit suicide, by administering a poison ... like a killer in series; because the training of a doctor is focused on life not death.
Totally agree with you Hamaizia Lamia, a doctor should not interrupt life, neither of a fetus of one month nor of an old man of 100 years or more ... life is too expensive, there is only who gives the life who can take it is God. If it continues like this, there will be countries where the legislator can make legalized suicide by the age of 20 without reason.
Concerning the irreversible state of the patient following an assisted suicide; no one can guarantee the irreversibility of any case. Assisted suicide in this case is a murder, since the person's state of health can improve ...
In my opinion, part of your answer is correct. There are irreversible cases: cancers, alzaimer, etc. but assisted suicide is not a solution in this case. The doctors' repeated pretext is "to put an end to suffering" ...
Maybe it's our destiny: the birth of a new born baby is a pain, leaving this world must be the same way.
Regarding the psychological state of the person wishing to commit suicide, in my opinion, there is no doubt that this person is not in his normal state to make such a decision. So for someone who has become a pecimist, he must be taken care of by a psychologist, instead of giving him the opportunity to make such a decision.
Totally agree with you Pr Hamaizia Lamia. For someone wishing to commit suicide, he is not able to make such a decision. So like this condition recommends psychological support instead of assisted suicide.
Philosophically speaking , we can answer this question objectively far from the principles of religion, but this later inspires us deeply on crucial questions about life and death.
So answer on such a question without referring to one or more religions, so it is the subjectivity and human egoism that appears at that moment.
I mean there are questions that have only one answer, and do not require effort to make a sin a permissible thing.
Okay, philosophically speaking, we cannot answer such questions without referring to religion; life or death.
In this case, the monotheistic religions, and especially the Islamic religion, which did not fail to repeat that we do not have the right to commit suicide, and the one who causes a murder without valid reason is a murderer, therefore is a sin.
Many cases in which the expectation and quality of life of patients and their families may warrant an early death at their request. For this reason, many countries have designed protocols to carry out a process of euthanasia, I share with you a publication that summarizes the Colombian protocol of euthanasia, which has been implemented since 2015.
Article CUIDADOS AL FINAL DE LA VIDA Y EUTANASIA EN COLOMBIA
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