Ethical Aspects of Euthanasia

Euthanasia or assisted suicide has become a conundrum. The issue attracted widespread attention. The issue is being examined in legal, health and religious points of view.The issue which was not being discussed openly in India till recently, is being brought to light recently in the country, after a nurse named Aruna Shanbhaug was sodomised and strangled by a ward boy, leading to her being in a vegetative state for the last 36 years.

It has taken such heart-rending cases to wake up Governments in many countries into considering legalising euthanasia. Chental Sebire, a French woman, who suffered from a rare form of cancer (Esthesioneuroblastoma) lost her sense of sight, taste and smell. The cancer also caused severe disfiguration of her face. She had to bear excruciating painand would have eventually gone into a coma. She requesed the president of her countryto grant her a right to die through euthanasia. But she was not granted the right' but she died soon after. It is suspected that she overdosed herself with medicines so as to end her life.

More recently in UK, Thomas Inglis who suffered from severe head injuries and was in a state of comawith very little chance of recovery, was injected with a lethal dose of heroin by his mother, Frances Inglis, so as to rid of his suffering. This case made the government deliberate on the efficacy of legaising euthanasia. Although Frances Inglis was sentenced to 9 years in jail for murder, this and the previous issue have set dangerous precedents to those who have no choice but to take the matter into their own hands.

There are limits to human suffering, especially when there is no light at the end of the tunnel. A terminally ill