Opposing to Euthanasia
Argument Against:
Euthanasia is a contentious topic throughout the world. The debate within the moral and the scientific. What is wrong or right. People claim that euthanasia is the best way to end someone´s suffering caused by a terminal disease or complicated mental health issue. But is it? Is giving up the actual solution to this problem? Or is it the easiest one? Accepting Euthanasia is accepting that the lives of those who are sick or disabled worth less than others. When a person is diagnosed with a terminal disease they go to palliative care where they get medicines so that the symptoms of the disease would not make them feel pain or discomfort and they could leave this world when they have to, not speed it up. Accepting the practice of assisted dying would mean that the units of palliative care would lower the care of the terminally ill. Do they deserve to be poorly taken care of? Finally, Doctors take vows when starting their careers to put their patients before them and do everything in their power to keep them alive and prolong their lives. However, at the same time doctors are the ones that need to sign forms to accept the patients' wish of dying. Isn’t this nonsense? The legal practice of euthanasia trough the world would only cause problems, higher death rates, and lower life spans for people. I consider that Euthanasia should not be legalized worldwide because of moral and ethical values from the patient. For example, having the same opportunities to live as others. The quality of healthcare they receive, and finally the doctors involved would not be saving lives — they would be ending them.
Life should be valued and considered as a gift. Allowing euthanasia would lower the respect society has for life. Medicine and science are always attached when trying to find cures for strange and terminal diseases in order to help the portion of the population which requires them. However, when a terminally ill person knows that they would now have the option to end their suffering they would take it. Eventually, other people with the same strange diagnosed terminal disease would prefer to use euthanasia. This would create a situation in which patients and doctors think that the solution to this problem is ending their life and therefore the investigations for these diseases would culminate(BBC). Where would the solutions to those problems be? Are they denying a chance of living for people with these types of diseases? Governments should better spend the money they use to allow the practice of euthanasia on research for medical improvements. Disabled or sick people deserve the same chances that everyone has in their last battle for their life. Science should be allowed to improve and find solutions but Euthanasia is just closing the door to this opportunity. Medical miracles is another situation which makes the opposing statement to Euthanasia much stronger. Medical miracles are when a patient overcomes illness and all of a sudden starts getting much better. This is unexplainable by science but there have been multiple cases. The story of Michael Cowe is a clear example of a medical miracle. He had a rare heart virus that caused myocarditis. This condition made his heart only pump blood at just 25%, when he went to the hospital it decreased to 10%. Doctors expected a 30% chance of survival. Michael was connected to ECMO and his condition just got worse. He was expecting a heart transplant and when he got the news he was getting one there were complications. He was now a terminal case. Doctors noticed his blood pressure coming up and an exam revealed his heart working normally. After several weeks he did not require the heart transplant anymore. He overcame all of the odds and negative prognosis and won the battle of his life(The Healthy). If the patients undergo euthanasia the possibility of them having a medical miracle would no longer be possible. The rates of patients using euthanasia have just risen through the years. A study made for 6860 physicians about the increase of patients using Euthanasia in an interval of 5 years found that from 1990 to 2005 it has increased from 18% to 80% (Alice) around hospitals in the world. Patients should fight until their last breath because there are palliative care options which would make them comfortable and euthanasia should not be legalized. The moral supersedes the scientific in these cases. We are talking about someone’s life and it should not be taken away by deadly medicine.
Palliative care is the caregiving medical approach that aims to provide quality of life and lower the suffering of patients declared as a terminal case. If the practice of euthanasia is legalized the quality of these centers and units would also decrease. The medicines and the staff in charge of taking care of these patients require high expenses. Euthanasia would classify as a palliative care measure and the resources and funding they get would reduce making the healthcare units weaker. I considered that these patients deserve the best because they are still fighting until they no longer can´t. They deserve commodities, healthcare, and an advanced palliative system. Euthanasia is considered suicide by physicians since it is done by patients themselves or murder since it is done by professionals. This is not the solution to help the patients' suffering and their families. The legalizing of euthanasia would bring more cases of the “slippery slope.” The slippery slope is an argument against this practice in which researchers and scientists claim that when it is legalized it can become voluntary and non-voluntary. This means that doctors could use it in terminal cases without the need for it to be a decision by using physiological manipulation(Jordan). This would take many lives of people who decided to keep fighting till the end and it would not be fair for them or their families. The slippery slope and the decline of healthcare in palliative care institutes are more than enough reasons why this practice should never be legalized. The slippery slope is an effect created by this legalization, no more lives should be unfairly taken and this is what a slippery slope would create. People with terminal diseases deserve better care because they are in pain and need closer attention. Euthanasia would just limit their possibilities.
Doctors play a key role in this topic. They are the ones who have studied the patient since they started them on a case and work really hard to prolong their life. Taking extraordinary measures, challenging science, and discovering new innovations are what doctors do and that is why their opposing position is so strong. They state that the prohibition of the intentional culmination of life is a base in medical school and that would go against what they work for. Doctors claim that the authorization of this practice would give them way too much power and that they did not want it in this case. Major medical institutions have a strong disagreement because this destroys the trust doctors and patients have which is the basis of their relationship(Edward). This is also a practice that does not require someone to have a complete medical education. Allowing more people to do it meaning people that want to cause damage to someone could easily do it. According to the slippery slope idea, another dangerous factor is the fact that when hospitals need beds or more space many doctors would use manipulation to make the patients undergo euthanasia(BBC). Families are the other face of the problem that the slippery slope considers. There is not a contract or document saying that they have to be informed when a patient decides to end their lives. Families could live with guilt and it could cause separations. Families are the basis for creating a better society separating them would only make everything worse. Is that what the world needs right now? Doctors are supposed to save lives and do the impossible to find cures. Based on the slippery slope argument euthanasia would erase the possibility to have medical advances. The power doctors received could be dangerous to society. Doctors believe in other ways to die with dignity. The ideas they came up with were to improve and expand the teaching of palliative care to everyone in the medical field. They also believe to have a stronger psychological accompaniment with the families of the patient. The affected families. The ethics of Doctors. All of these characteristics of society are effects of the legalization of euthanasia and if this happened irreversible damage would be caused to the world. We should focus on solving the problems the world is facing right now and not creating new ones. These are valuable reasons how euthanasia is not the right choice to make.