Euthanasia

Euthanasia
Euthanasia, a word meaning “good death” in Greek, is widely known as the process of ending a life in a painless manner. Lately, a growing number of elderly people worldwide are lobbying their governments to legalise euthanasia, as they say it is their right to die with dignity. Still, is it right to allow people to die just because they want to, or is it more important to preserve a human life whenever possible?
The word euthanasia has its roots all the way back to the Hippocratic Oath, which was written between 400 and 300 B.C. The original Oath states: “To please no one will I prescribe a deadly drug nor give advice which may cause his death.” However, in the twenty-first century, the meaning of euthanasia has blurred. It has now at least three definitions: euthanasia by consent, assisted suicide, and euthanasia by means.
The most controversial meaning among these would be that of euthanasia by consent. It means. The decision can be made based on what the incapacitated individual would have wanted, or it could be made on substituted judgment of what the decision maker would want were he or she in the incapacitated person's place, or finally, the decision could be made by assessing objectively whether euthanasia is the most beneficial course of treatment. In any case, euthanasia by consent is highly controversial, especially because multiple proxies may claim the authority to decide for the patient and may or may not have explicit consent from the patient to make that decision. It is due to this definition of euthanasia that many debates have sprung up today, with the supporters of euthanasia saying that according to the rule of euthanasia by consent, patients should be allowed to decide their own fate. However, those opposing euthanasia are using the just the same argument against, stating that if a law allowing euthanasia is passed, the proxy responsible would not be the patient but the doctor. The law would become a right to ill rather than a right to die. Doctors would be able to kill patients that are unable to speak well to express whether they would like to die or not. Still, most of the elderly people wanting death but unable to have a law allowing them to do so, would instead go to Mexico and seek the do-called “death-in-a-bottle”, an anaesthetic that is usually used for putting animals to sleep, and can kill a person if taken in excess by putting him to a permanent sleep.
Personally, I feel that euthanasia should be allowed, but only to a certain extent. I would support those elderly people seeking death by themselves and not asking the doctors to help administer death to them. This way, it would be entirely their responsibility in the case of their death. I do not agree that patients in hospitals should be allowed to choose their deaths, unless they are in a serious vegetative state and cannot respond at all, and the only organ working in their body is their heart. This should be the only circumstances under which euthanasia is allowed.
Still, I know that these arguments cannot ease the debates that have currently emerged about euthanasia. But I hope my views can clear up a few misconceptions about it.