Two kinds of Euthanasia defined.
1:Active euthanasia : It involves administering medicine or poison to end the life of a terminally ill patient.
2:Passive euthanasia :A terminally ill patient is allowed to die by stopping life support or medicines.
Euthanasia has been a controversial issue across the globe. Most countries don’t allow active euthanasia .
Definition:
The intentional killing by act or omission of a dependent human being for his or her alleged benefit. (If death is not intended, it is not an act of euthanasia)
Arguments For Euthanasia:
It provides a way of relief when a person’s quality of life is low.
Frees up medical funds to help other people.
It is another case of freedom of choice.
Arguments Against Euthanasia:
Euthanasia devalues human life.
Euthanasia can become a means of health care cost containment.
Physicians and other medical care people should not be involved in directly causing death.
There is a “slippery slope” effect that has occurred where euthanasia has been first been legalized for only
the terminally ill and later laws are changed to allow it for other people or to be done non-voluntarily.
mActive euthanasia is legal in Netheralands, Luxembourg and Belgium while passive euthanasia has got wider acceptance and is allowed in most states in the United States, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, and Albania.
In India, the law doesn’t permit either active or passive euthanasia but in 2011 the Supreme Court had ruled in favour of passive euthanasia with certain strict safeguards. The SC had said life support system can be withdrawn only on the recommendation of a panel of doctors after permission of the high court concerned on an application by family members or next friend.
These guidelines,the Centre said, shall remain in force until a law is framed.
The controversy revolves around a provision in the Medical Council of India Act that declares practicing euthanasia an unethical act.
After a patient is brain dead, should the question of withdrawing life support be decided by team of doctors or just by the treating physician alone? These are some of the questions the Supreme court of India is likely to consider.
