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Euthanasia: mercy killing or murder?
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Han Ximin
AFTER many years of debating euthanasia and medically assisted suicide, the Dutch Senate has passed a euthanasia bill to allow doctors, under strict conditions, to help their terminally ill patients end their lives. The Netherlands is the only country in the world to legalize euthanasia.
Euthanasia is not unknown in China. There have been increasing reports of requests for euthanasia since the 1980s. A recent report by the Beijing Youth Daily said nine patients suffering unbearable physical and psychological agony and without any hope of recovery, wrote an open letter asking for a decent death. Yet since euthanasia is illegal in China, they have to wait and die naturally -- and painfully.
Li Anhua, doctor, Shenzhen Red Cross Hospital
Euthanasia means the termination of life by a doctor at the expressed wish of a patient. The request to the doctor must be voluntary, explicit and carefully considered and it must have been made repeatedly.
A recent survey on medical staff at eight Beijing hospitals by Beijing University showed 93.6 per cent of 450 medical workers and 82.6 per cent of 120 elderly people support euthanasia.
I personally support euthanasia. Voluntary euthanasia, which is totally different from mercy killing, emphasizes the expressed intent of the person who wants to die. Euthanasia can be practiced in China if doctors follow strict procedures and the substantive requirements for the patients' requests are well considered.
Though permanently ill patients are still technically alive, they cannot be said to be living. Bringing the practice out in a legalized and supervised way will make both doctors and patients feel safer.
Euthanasia can help patients with incurable diseases die in a decent way, surrounded by their loved ones. This is nicer than a natural but horrible death.
Zhang Zhiwei, lawyer
Any practice of euthanasia, whether voluntary or involuntary, will be illegal in China unless the laws are changed. Though many people support euthanasia legislation, there has been no progress in this aspect.
In reality, many patients who suffer agonizing terminal illnesses halt treatment to save money and surrender to the inevitable.
There is a view that medical treatment should be given to those who will "benefit" from it and those who suffer permanent illness should be allowed to die. But this is wrong.
The only time to perform euthanasia is in cases where life has become humiliating for a patient who also faces a future of unbearable suffering.
Euthanasia legislation in China should only be considered only when the country's medical care system, medical staff's moral standing and social insurance system has been greatly improved.
In the early stages of China's economic construction, setting up special economic zones was a good experiment. Why not pilot euthanasia legislation in some major cities where medical insurance, medical technology are advanced?
Guan Xiaohong, company manager
In the 1980s, a doctor in Shanxi Province was prosecuted for performing euthanasia for a patient. This case tells us that euthanasia is not supported in our legal system.
Once euthanasia is legalized, it will not protect the rights of terminally ill patients to live, for they will be less protected.
Legislation cannot eliminate the possibility that the patients are reluctant to agree, or actually unwilling to pass on. I prefer improving care for the terminally ill rather than legalizing euthanasia, for the lowering of medical standards and the questionable moral standing of some medical practitioners are two reasons patients with terminal illnesses to request euthanasia.
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