Tuesday, April 16, 2013

The question of Euthanasia

The freedom to live must come with that to die. A person, who after due deliberation and after considering all parameters of impact to self and others chooses to die, he must be allowed to. Not less the study done on near-death experience that death by natural causes is a beautiful experience, and that through unnatural causes including suicide is indeed, painful.

Euthanasia though comes down to weighing options. Beautifully analogized in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's film Guzaarish, a person disabled and helpless might feel as suffocated as one shut immobilized in a closed container. Who are those  to judge, who haven't experienced it.

We can make such a person aware of how much he is loved, and would be missed, by family and friends. He can be made to realize how still, he can contribute to society and make life more wholesome. He can be shown examples of others worse off, who have made the most of it, become role models and immortalized their memory and name. If even after that the person chooses death over the suffering each minute, and we know that it is not a hasty decision, then we must facilitate it. Obviously , if he wants to wear a suicide vest to damage other life and property, it cannot be allowed. He cannot be allowed to physically impact the lives of others around.

Civil society does exert it's power of killing anti-social elements who choose to harm others even at the cost of their own lives. This we do in defense of live and to maintain order. We even choose to put to death such elements who have been captured, which I do not agree with.

If we choose the guiding principle followed in permitting Euthanasia, put such guilty elements to life-sentence in solitary confinement with no exposure to natural elements, and with minimum food and water to survive at worst. If they want to be executed that bear this, so be it.

In summary, death for self should be allowed, and be permitted upon the individual's choice after empathizing with his options.

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