Sunday, January 6, 2008

Should euthanasia be made legal in India?

The oxford dictionary describes the term euthanasia as painless killing,especially of someone with a terminal illness. Euthanasia is self-imposed killing; it is a mercy killing, when there is not a slightest chance of endurance. Particularly, in India, where poverty is extensive, people do not much care about spending a lot in, incurable
disease, where there is really no hope of survival without pain. Hence,
from this perspective, keeping a patient under torment and unnecessary
pain seems pointless. Therefore, in this case euthanasia is the most
practical cure, and this is possible only if euthanasia is made legal
in India.

Also, the patients affected by terminal illness find themselves
under duress for being a burden on family and friends; this can be one
of the main reasons for legalizing euthanasia in India. When these
patients want to give up their lives, they know deep within them that
they are living on false hopes of survival and that there is not even a
small ray of hope for further improvement. The family cannot really say
directly that it is a mere waste of money and it does not really make
sense to keep the patient under distress when the pain crosses all
boundaries, also when there is not even a bare minimal chance of
living. It is then that the need of euthanasia to be legal in India
arises.

Ethically, this may sound improbable, but considering the sufferings
and miseries of an ill person, it is always better to relieve him/her
under all improbabilities. I feel this is humane, than to leave a
person in anguish day after day without much optimism, anyway.
Therefore, I see a compulsive need to make euthanasia legal in India.

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