By Alexei C. Summers (Contributor) – Email
Date Posted: September 28, 2011
Print Edition: September 21, 2011
Intervening with illness – playing God. It’s a controversial matter to be sure. Euthanasia, also known as mercy killing, has been the subject of rising and heated debate in recent months. To many people the very word is associated with hurt, pain and suffering. To many, the exact nature of the word implies a terrible death. But is that really what this means? The Greek root of the word euthanasia, means “a good death.” The very nature of the word, contrary to popular belief, does not imply a painful death at all, but rather the cessation of pain and suffering. A good death, to end the woeful torment that a poor unfortunate soul has been thrown into. Some have called it “dying with dignity.”
Upon further inspection of this, one must ask the question: is there any form of death that is at all dignified? To properly answer that question, it might be helpful to look to a nation where euthanasia is already in practice. The Netherlands officially decriminalized physician-assisted euthanasia in 2002 under the Termination of Life on Request and Assisted Suicide Act. The usual modus operandi in the Netherlands, for a physician to assist or hasten death is to provide the patient with a strong barbiturate potion. Barbiturates are a class of drug that produces an incredibly strong sedative and muscle relaxant. At one point, prescriptions for such drugs were heavily abused in North American society, and in some European countries. The Rolling Stones even wrote a song about suburban housewives abusing barbiturate pills – entitled “Mother’s Little Helper.” The drug class is well known for causing many accidental and intentional celebrity drug overdoses since the 1940’s when it first gained notoriety to present day. Barbiturates are also known in the medical community for their anesthetic properties.
One would think, after reviewing the facts of the drug that it would be a rather peaceful and easy death, would they not? Well, one would be wrong.
The pain might be mollified and avoided but the ignominy for the patient of almost assuredly drowning in their own vomit will be always present during the ordeal. Most sedatives work by shutting the brain down, section by section, when taken in high dosages. In short, this eventually causes the patient’s brain to lose control over bodily functions, causing one to suffocate when one’s brain ceases to tell the lungs to keep breathing. This is called central nervous system induced respiratory depression. You may be interested to know that in the Netherlands a doctor must be present during the entire process, mainly to ensure that one does not choke on their own vomit, which is quite likely to occur.
Perhaps in cases of extreme terminal illness where there is absolutely no hope at all, when all other medical avenues have been exhausted, and the pain is excruciating and unbearable, a patient, given that they are in their right frame of mind, should be able to have the right to die.
But as for the method of how that ‘good death’ should be administered, it is difficult to draw an opinion on that, because there is no truly dignified way to die. The best a physician could do would be to make their patient’s terminus be as painless and hasty as possible. But ridding the good death of the ignominy that goes hand in hand with it, naturally, is an impossibility. And yet, still, many patients would take this option, regardless. It is a matter of which evil is worse. For many terminal cases, the day-to-day life is much messier, and depriving of dignity than any physician-assisted euthanasia could ever be.
All physicians must take an oath – the Hippocratic oath – an oath to do no harm. And when that point is brought into the subject of euthanasia, it begs the question of whether the alleviation of a dying patient’s intolerable pain and decay would not also be the prevention of the same harm listed in the oath. One thing is constant through all these questions we as a democratic society must ponder – there is no such thing a “good death”. Dignity does not exist. We have yet to invent it.
