Should Euthanasia Be Legalised For Children?
Friday, December 11, 2015
Finally, here's my final essay for ESL407. Quite annoyingly disappointing that even for the last essay, she did not relax her marking style just a teeny bit. I only managed to get 1 A. Sigh. . .got a B- for this Argumentative/Persuasion Essay.
I hope my ESL408 teacher will be more lax about marking and be more lenient and generous in giving out As.
So, our final essay was based on our debate topic so for my group - Euthanasia. I chose to focus on whether it should be legalised for children, as it is already legal in several countries but for some countries where it is legalised, there's an age limit or the choice is left to the parents.
Clearly, I need to work on my citations. And writing skills. Sigh.
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Euthanasia is an extremely emotional and controversial topic
that has sparked countless debates due to the various ethical issues it brings
about. According to the Oxford dictionary, it comes from the Greek words
whereby “eu” means “well” and “thanatos” means “death”. Simply put, it is “the
painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease
or in an irreversible coma.” Euthanasia can be administered to animals and
human beings of any age, including children. However for children, they are
normally euthanised if they are suffering from an incurable disease and
suffering immensely or if they are born with crucial birth defects and their
parents are the ones who make the decision, with the help of healthcare
professionals. As the child has no say in the matter whatsoever, this is known
as involuntary euthanasia. As I have mentioned earlier, euthanasia brings about
countless ethical issues hence, in my opinion, even though euthanasia eases
pain and suffering, it should not be legalised for children due to the moral
issues involved and the fact that there are existing alternatives, such as
palliative care.
The legal age in most countries around the world is 18;
hence, it is the parents who make the decisions for them. As there are lives at
stake here, a few important questions would definitely arise. Are parents
really capable and worthy of making such decisions for their children? Who are
we to decide if a life is not worth living, much less the life of an innocent
child? Is this not equivalent to murder? As parents, unless they are in the
healthcare profession, are not medically trained and might not be able to come
to a decision on their own, in the counties where euthanasia is legal, they
would first have to consult the doctor. The child would also be examined and
assessed by child psychologists and psychiatrists and some of the key factors
that they would put into account and consider would be the quality of life the
child would have if they were to continue living and the cost of the medical
treatment, if there are any, as the child could be suffering from an incurable
disease. No parent in their right state of mind would want their child to die.
However, if their child has lived a miserable life since birth and there is no
cure at all, they might agree to euthanise their child, just to put an end to
their suffering. Majority of countries in the world still have not legalised
euthanasia hence, there have been countless cases of parents using other means
of killing their own children. For example, in Saskatchewan, there was a
12-year-old girl, Tracy, who was suffering from cerebral palsy, which is a
disorder that affects the muscles, movement and motor skills. She had several
other disorders, learning disabilities and required multiple operations. She
was also unable to carry out any simple day-to-day activities without the help
of her parents. Her father was convinced that she was suffering immensely and
hence, one day, he left Tracy in his pick-up truck with the engine running and
she died from inhaling all the carbon monoxide. This case study, as well as all
the others, shows that we really should not underestimate the love a parent has
for their child, or rather how much they “love their child to death”, and the
lengths in which they would go just to see them out of their suffering, even
though it still is not ethically correct.
[deleted cause secret]
According to Shrivastava, Chandrshekhar (2015), in Belgium, euthanasia
was legalised in 2002, but only for people in “constant and unbearable physical
or mental suffering that cannot be alleviated.” They also introduced a new bill
whereby minors, under the age of 18, and as young as 12, would be given the option
on whether they want euthanasia to be administered to them. However, it is not
as simple as that. Firstly, according to the bill, the child has to “be in a
hopeless medical situation of constant and unbearable suffering that cannot be
eased and which will cause death in the short term,” and depict “a capacity of
discernment and be conscious at the moment of request.” Secondly, the child
would also have to be assessed by medical professionals, such as child
psychologists and psychiatrists, who will evaluate if the child fully
understands the concept of euthanasia and if they are aware of the consequences
and outcomes of it and lastly, the parent or guardian of the child has to agree
to the child’s final decision. According to a palliative nurse, whose niche is
in end-of-life care for children, Sonja Develter, she “says she in concerned
that giving children a choice would mean they made decisions based on what they
thought their families wanted to hear, and that it would be a terrible strain
for children who may already feel they are a burden to their caregivers.”
Hence, “some paediatricians warn that vulnerable children could be put at risk
and have questioned whether a child can really be expected to make such a
difficult choice” and hence, they “signed an open letter against the law,
claiming that there was no urgent need for it and that modern medicine is
capable of alleviating pain.” This shows that children, no matter how mature
they act or claim to be, are incapable of making the decision of whether they
should die. This option should not even be available to them in the first
place.
Also, according to the Hippocratic oath, doctors are not
allowed to administer euthanasia to their patients and have to try to treat the
patient to the best of their ability as their oath states, “I will neither give
a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this
effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and
holiness I will guard my life and my art.” Because of the oath, doctors would
try to suggest alternatives to the parents of the child, one of which would be
palliative care. Palliative care is a form of specialised medical care for
people with terminal or severe illnesses, which tries to soothe their pain,
physical stress and mental stress. Pain-relieving drugs are also administered
to the patient to ensure he or she is comfortable.
Indeed, euthanasia should not be legalised, especially for
children, what with there being alternatives such as palliative care available.
After all, abortion is frowned upon and illegal in most countries because it
involved killing a child, even though it has not been born yet. The same
concept should be applied to euthanasia. Children are innocent hence;
euthanasia should not be made available for them. No one has the right to
decide if someone should live or die and some children are incapable of
thinking for themselves. Even if the parents were to make the decision for
them, even though they know their child is free from suffering, they might
carry this guilt with them for the rest of their lives and bear a social stigma
that they have murdered their child. Say no to euthanasia.
References:
Oxforddictionaries.com,. (2015).euthanasia
- definition of euthanasia in English from the Oxford dictionary. Retrieved
22 November 2015, from http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/euthanasia
MedicineNet,. (2015). Hippocratic Oath. Retrieved 22
November 2015, from http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=20909 Mukhida, K. (2007). Loving your child to death:
Considerations of the care of chronically ill children and euthanasia in Emil
Sher’s Mourning Dove. Paediatrics
& Child Health, 12(10),
859. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2532575/?tool=pmcentrez (2015)
Infotrac Newsstand - Document - Euthanasia for children also. Retrieved
November 23, 2015, from http://go.galegroup.com.gate.lib.buffalo.edu/ps/i.do?p=STND&u=sunybuff_main&id=GALE|A360708351&v=2.1&it=r&sid=summon&userGroup=sunybuff_main&authCount=1
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Anyway, here's a few pictures from our last ESL407 class.
Anyway, here's a few pictures from our last ESL407 class.
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