Volume 7, Issue 1, November 1997


THERE IS NO RIGHT TO DIE

There are those who claim our laws on euthanasia are outdated and unjust. They would allow for mercy killing for extremme cases of dying.

Their cry for "the right to die" in our laws is a dangerous point of view.

It is well for us to remember that it was not long ago Nazi Germany hastened the death of unwanted people until it became somewhat commonplace to them and an ignominy on the human race.

Today we have the much discussed and disputed Latimer case in the west where a tired father took the life of his severely handicapped daughter.

The original Greek word for euthanasia meant "to have a good death." Today, amongst us, it has taken on the meaning of allowing a very sick person to be killed.

It has been of general acceptance in our society and health care systems to allow terminally ill persons to die with care being given to them.

To conclude that there is nothing more to be done to cure or save a life does not mean a physician has nothing further to do. There are active procedures to be considered in the form of caring treatment when the cure is no longer possible, and none of them need, or should, involve choosing death or the means of death.

Allowing a very sick person to die and killing the person are not morally equivalent. Even in cases of excruciating and intractable pain and suffering, there is a moral difference between allowing the incurable person to die with care and killing the person.

To be allowed to die by withholding useless treatment allows the patient to die from causes which is no longer reasonable or beneficial to that patient to fight by medical means. To put to death the patient, even if chosen by the patient, cannot impose a duty on anyone else, and it cannot therefore be called a "right."

Society's obligation with regard to the "right to die" point of view is to ensure the conditions and processes, such as in the law, and in the health care system, and medical ethics, which will facilitate a person's control over their own death, and as much as possible in accordance with their own consciences and wishes. We have a moral duty to treat, as well as to care for, the sick and the dying, and when no such duty to treat exists, then caring to allow the patient to have as good a death as possible.

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"Religion NOW" is published in limited edition by the Rev. Ross E. Readhead, B.A., B.D., Certificate of Corrections, McMaster University, in the interest of furthering knowledge and participation in religion. Dialogue is invited and welcomed.