About couple months ago, one news article about Euthanasia controversy was published on New York Times. Mainly, it was about Ms. Nyirahabiyambere, an African living in U.S. as a foreigner, who had to rely on a plastic tube for nutrition after she became a human vegetable by a sudden stroke. Although no improvements were made by the treatment using a plastic tube, the family including Mr. Ndayishimiye strongly disagreed to remove plastic tube from Ms. Nyirahabiyambere. There were ongoing conflicts between the court and her family, on whether plastic tube should be remained or removed. After several clashes, the tube was finally removed. This case is a typical example of issue regarding euthanasia, which is the practice of ending a life in a manner which relieves pain and suffering. Regarding this, the news mentioned above can be generalized into whether euthanasia can be legalized or not. In fact, this topic has been a controversial issue for a very long period of time and ongoing clashes about euthanasia are still taking place in many countries, including Korea. In my opinion, Euthanasia should be legalized by the law, considering the fact that its benefits further outweigh its drawbacks and problems.
First and foremost, legalizing euthanasia can remove financial burden for families who take care of patients relying on life-extending apparatus. In many cases, patients have to pay extreme amount of money on retaining such tubes and equipment. Also, it is not sure whether patients will revive from vegetation status, with a very low probability. If removing these equipment although patients are not likely to get recovered is not allowed, families have to pay tremendous amounts of finances for a long time. In other words, families have to waste their money on tasks that are almost impossible to be solved. Therefore, by legalizing euthanasia, families of these patients can get out of serious financial burdens. Some opponents might raise a question about the possibilities of abusing euthanasia in sinister purposes. They claim that the concept of human life can get severely devaluated and as a result, practicing euthanasia can be related with illegal organ trafficking, which is selling person’s organ illegally in order to make a profit. Not only that, doctors can order to operate euthanasia without careful examination, because of the nuisance process. However, this problem can be solved by strengthening the supervision of the process. Providing rigorous standards on hospital and prohibiting the access to the process of euthanasia, except doctors and medical agencies would be a plausible solution.
In addition, euthanasia fully ensures patient’s right to die comfortably and keep out of pain. Patients are exposed to severe pains when their life is artificially extended by medical equipment. If the purpose of these medications is merely a life extension, it is very meaningless considering all the pains patients can receive. Also, patients have rights to decide whether to die or remain their life by life-extending medication, since it is their life, not doctors’ or families’. Maybe, some will argue that it is not clear whether patients want to give up their life or not, after they are in a state of vegetable. Because patients are in a state where it is impossible for them to communicate, it is obviously impossible to know their choice. Again, this statement can be rebutted by a possible solution; making it mandatory for citizens to sign up for agreements on euthanasia. When signing up for medical insurance or becoming an adult, governments can have every citizen to agree with documents stating that euthanasia would be practiced when they are in a vegetal state and have almost no possibility of revival.
To sum up, it is absolutely reasonable to legalize euthanasia by the law without any shadow of doubt. As it is mentioned above, euthanasia removes the financial burden for patients’ families and provides patients right to die comfortable without any pain. Although there is still an ongoing conflict, nations that have not yet legalized euthanasia should be urged to allow it, which can both help patients and the whole society.
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