In America there are about 42,000 suicides annually, of which only 2 to 4 percent are by people who are terminally ill. Many of these patients that ask to end their life usually have depression or another treatable mental disease. Euthanasia is an inhumane alternative for terminally ill loved ones who are undergoing intense or unbearable pain. Euthanasia should be illegal in all 50 states and patients who request it should be given proper care and compassion until they pass due to natural causes.
To begin, a major concern of euthanasia being legal is known as “the slippery slope”. Although many “safeguards” can be argued about the issue, there really are none. In South Australia voluntary euthanasia is illegal, and a recent survey of doctors who had taken active steps to end a patient’s life found that 49% of them had never received a request from the patient to do so. A more recent survey of nearly 1000 Australian surgeons found that more than one third had intentionally hastened the death of a patient by giving more medication than was needed to treat the patient’s symptoms. Of the group, more than half said they did it without a straightforward application from the patient. Studies like this have shown up across the world to only further prove the point. Furthermore, abuse is inevitable, and voluntary euthanasia will lead to involuntary euthanasia. If “a door of death” is open to the elderly, why stop there? Respected doctors who agree with euthanasia are considering “infanticide” as a honest option in healthcare as well. This only shows the serious dangers that the slippery slope of euthanasia has, and no matter how strictly physicians think they can regulate it, those regulations will dissipate quickly. Wesley Smith, an American author, lawyer, and senior fellow of the Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism, puts it best stating, “The carefully shaded moral distinctions in which the health-care intelligentsia and policymakers take so much pride are of little actual consequence in the real world of cost-controlled medical practice, in busy hospital settings, and among families suffering the emotional trauma and bearing the financial costs of caring for a severely brain-damaged relative. Once killing is seen as an appropriate answer in a few cases, the ground quickly gives way, and it becomes the answer in many cases.”
Not only is it a slippery slope, but palliative care is another large player when it comes to Euthanasia. What the terminally ill want is pain relief, not an end to life. The numbers help illustrate this, and healthcare professionals are very aware of it. Paul Dunne, who has worked with over 1,000 dying patients, has stated that only five patients have ever said, “Kill me”. In America there are about 42,000 suicides annually, of which only 2 to 4 percent are by people who are terminally ill, and many patients that ask to end their life usually have a mental illness that is treatable through medications and/or therapy. Although, if palliative care is done correctly and is in use with terminally ill patients who request for assisted suicide, then it can help relieve suffering in a majority of cases. Dr. Peter Admiraal, a pro-euthanasia doctor based in Holland, stated, “essentially all pain can be controlled … euthanasia for pain relief is unethical” And Dr Ian Gawler has said, “in many years of working with people facing death I have never been confronted by a situation where the urge to provide ongoing compassionate care was outweighed by the pragmatic need for a prematurely induced death.”. Moreover, if euthanasia was legal then there would be the unavoidable decline for care in the elderly and palliative care in general. Things are turned upside down when death is seen as a treatment, and technologies will help advance patient’s death, rather than extending their lives
Finally, euthanasia can urge people to do the same. It doesn’t sound like a very large issue when thinking about it, and may sound selfish to most, but there is fact behind it. According to experts, people with family members who have committed suicide are prone to doing the same and this also includes the act of mercy killing. If society will accept it as a normal practice, it can influence more people to consider euthanasia. This can be problematic especially if the sickness was wrongly diagnosed but the patient was already euthanized. Livescience.com states that “People with a family history of suicide, childhood trauma, or who have impulsive aggression are more likely to commit suicide themselves… for people with an underlying mental illness, stressful situations (such as bullying, relationship conflict or unemployment) can increase risk. Suicide can also be contagious, which is why suicide prevention groups advise that media reports about suicide avoid sensationalism or descriptions of the act.”. So not only is euthanasia an inhumane option for patients, it may also affect the patient’s loved ones as well causing more deaths all in all.
For these reasons and many others, assisted suicide or euthanasia should be illegal everywhere in the United States. It not only goes against what health care professionals stand for, will never be able to guarantee safety measures, but also impacts the patient’s family and friends in a large way as well.