Euthanasia

Following on from my blog about quality of life, I wanted to say something about this fight to allow euthanasia. It keeps cropping up from time to time and it is very worrying that one day it might be made legal in this country as it has in others.

I understand the plight of those who want this right and as always there are really good reasons to do something that essentially is a wrong disguised as a right. I wonder if those people who are fighting for this have really taken on board the possibility that if euthanasia was allowed, there will be people, without doubt, who will lose their lives even though they wanted to keep living. There have been abuses on the use of the DNR (do not resuscitate) order at the moment and who knows what will happen if euthanasia is allowed.

My sister is a case in point. Recently she suffered a series of minor strokes and she was sent to the hospital in an ambulance clutching an envelope. I met her at the hospital and sat and chatted to her in the ambulance when she was a bit better and asked her what was in the envelope. The staff on the ambulance said it was a DNR order and so if she had had any more strokes or a heart attack on the way to hospital, they would have been unable to help her in any way. She was very angry about this as she wants to continue living. The nursing home and her doctor had done this without anyone being involved, even her power of attorney holder. They presumed that she hadn’t the capacity to make that decision and looking at her health, thought this was the right thing to do.

I have had stories told to me by a nursing home manager of families that don’t want their relatives to be given any help whatsoever if they become ill, even painkillers. This isn’t out of love for their relative; they resent the amount of money care homes cost and just want a ‘speedy end’.

People who are for euthanasia will say that there can be many systems put in place to prevent this sort of thing happening: a panel of doctors to sign it off, etc. but if someone can’t make their wishes known well enough (my sister could but they didn’t ask her!), they have to rely on what their relatives think and that will not always be an unbiased opinion.

There are places that do allow euthanasia, as we know, and it would be a great pity if this was to spread to other countries. I hope you join me in praying that euthanasia won’t spread and that those who do allow it at the moment will stop doing so.

God bless,