It's About Mercy !

The amoral consequence of the euthanasia epidemic is sweeping into the ears of politicians and governmental actions. However, advocating legally assisted-suicide might be a boundary that should not be trespassed. This is due to human beings’ inherent dignity. According to United Nation Universal Declaration of Human Rights, dignity is the first and foremost right of any individual. If a person is killed, he or she is then objectified and the sanctity of life violated. It is precisely this dehumanizing aspect of euthanasia that makes it so controversial. Our very societies are built on value systems venerating heroism, courage, sacrifice and martyrs. People as Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, and Aung San Suu Kyi are idolized because they have endured pain just as Christ himself when he was crucified. Therefore, euthanasia is widely rejected as accepting pain is at times an essential feature denoting strength in a person. Decriminalizing euthanasia would be synonymous to subverting our value system into weakness and cowardice.

Nowadays, there are even countries reckoned for death tourism. In Switzerland, there are approximately 400 assisted suicide cases per annum and of which around 130 of them are from abroad. Assisted suicide has been allowed in the country since the 1940s, by people who do not have a vested interest in the death. Until now in Europe only Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherland allows euthanasia. In United States it is only the state of Oregon, which supports it. Moreover, death tourism is stirring a negative image on Switzerland and the government is enforcing laws to minimize the effect. They are trying to avoid assisted-suicide to become a profit-driven business. Already many have enrolled to right-to-die organizations like the Swiss group Dignitas. Many of the legal suicide conducted lack sufficient documentation to assure that euthanasia is the sole recourse. It is also practically wrong that people who are in a terminal illness have to travel across thousands of miles away from their homecountry for the sake of a peaceful death. Holiday euthanasia is the last vacation a person ever does but the government in Switzerland is trying to set a stop by establishing restrictions on the duration of how many months one has to stay in the country to be eligible.

Death tourism is one aspect promoting euthanasia, individuals and organizations are making it public. There are individuals who are currently coined as Dr. Death, be it in America, Australia or any other parts of the world. In Australia, we have Dr. Philip Nitschke, who is the founder of a pro-euthanasia group namely Exit International. He was also the first doctor to administer a legal and voluntary lethal injection. Exit international has developed several approaches for death. For instance, the exit bag and CoGen is one. The CoGen device generates carbon monoxide to fill the exit bag, which is placed in a manner that you will inhale the gas. Another, advance apparatus is the Exit euthanasia device that uses conventional barbecue gas bottles that contain nitrogen, adhesive tape, plastic suicide bags and some plastic tubing. Nitschke considered this method as being “flawless”. When pure nitrogen is inhaled by an individual, he or she will immediately, (12 seconds) lose consciousness and depart in a few minutes.

In America, we have Jack Kevorkian who was coined as “Dr. Death” due to his assistant to people who committed suicide. It was in 1990, that Kevorkian was involved in his first physician-assisted suicide of a patient suffering from Alzheimer’s disease in the state of Oregon. He was charged for murder but the case was dismissed to ambiguity in the Michigan law. Now, he has assisted many hundred suicides. He was condemned by the Michigan law in March 26, 1999 of second-degree murder and released on parole in June 1, 2006. In most of the cases, homemade devices or intravenous chemicals were injected to conduct the assisted suicide. Moreover, he is known for saying that “dying is not a crime”. Yet, he agrees that administrating death can become abusive or be wrongly used. For instance, someone might be administrating death but might later regr